Bizarre Misadventures: Ultra Hunters
by PhantomGalaxy13
Summary: In this alternate Pokemon Timeline, Ash Ketchum is raised by his godfather, an Aura Guardian by the name of Riley in Sinnoh. On his thirteenth birthday, he is invited back to Pallet Town to help a girl named Lillie from Alola who is looking for a cure for her sick mother. Much to their dismay, their adventure ends up having more twists and turns than they both expected.
1. Ch 1: The Aura User

**{Author Warning: This has some Pokémon Sun and Moon Spoilers. So be careful if you don't want to be spoiled too much.}**

 _W-Where am I?_

 _W-What is this place?_

 _I don't know who I am, I don't know where I'm from…_

 _But why am I crying? Why does it feel like I've lost everything important to me?_

[Prologue: Eight Years Ago.]

Pallet Town is where we shall begin the story of the three adventurers, starting with the first of them, the one who brought the other two together.

In Pallet Town there was a blue themed man carrying a bag pack slung over his shoulder. He was a rather tall man wearing a strange but stylishly big hat with black hair and kind but fierce blue eyes. He wore a deep blue coat with a black turtleneck underneath with a lovely gold design right below his neck. Beside him was jackal-like bipedal Pokémon that the man had styled himself after due to the fact the Pokémon also was naturally black and blue. The two had stepped into the lovely country-side village, taking in the amazingly refreshing air.

"This place is much more relaxing than Iron Island, isn't it my friend?" He turned to his partner.

'I'm more surprised Master Phoenix and Master Crescent have not yet blown anything up here. If we didn't know them, we would have never believed they would have settled down here and not burn it into the ground on accident.' His Pokémon replied to him.

The man laughed nervously at the character of his former teacher. "Well the wonders of marriage then. If anyone could keep those two in line it would have been Delia."

'In order words, they're whipped.'

The two of them laughed. "Just be sure to not say that in front of them." Riley managed to say after their laughter died down.

"BOO!"

The two of them suddenly felt a powerful surge of life force behind them and they both quickly turned around, battle ready—then quickly dropped their stances when they realized who snuck on them.

"A-Ash?!" The man cried out in surprise before the five year old came to hug him. Nervously and still in shock, Riley wondered where he had come from, but a little later he also hugged back.

"Great to see you, Uncle Riley!" Ash happily spoke before releasing his hold on the man and running up to Lucario to give him a hug as well. "Lucario! You're both back!"

'I-It's also great to see you young master…' Lucario answered before both he and Riley shared a look.

"Ash? How did you know we were here? And… why didn't we sense you?" Riley questioned. He was an Aura Guardian, an ancient order of consisting of practically metahuman Pokémon and Humans who have stood as the vanguard and protected the innocent with their abilities of Aura.

One of the most signature abilities of Aura Guardians was the ability to sense other living beings, and with Riley and Lucario both being Aura Guardians, they wondered how a small child got past their honed senses and come so close to them.

Ash smiled as he let go of Lucario. "Dad's been teaching me how to mask my Aura! We were training until we sensed you two!"

'Wait… _we_?' Lucario nervously repeated the young boy's innocent words to which the young child simply nodded in response.

"Why Lucario, you almost sound like you don't want to meet us." A rather professionally restrained voice emphasized.

Riley and Lucario gulped before slowly turning their head behind them again.

'It's sad really. Phoenix, I think our students don't want to hang out with 'whipped' old folks such as us anymore.' A Shiny Lucario added in with a hint of sadistic anger in his voice that flew over the head of the oblivious five year old.

"Ahh! I've got an idea, why don't we 'whip' them into shape?" The tall, spiky-raven haired man in his early thirties with vivid green eyes said with a dark smile.

'N-no, Sir Crescent! It's was merely a jape!' Lucario nervously defended himself.

Riley nervously agreed with him. "Yes, Master Phoenix! Just a joke!" He panicked, as Ash tilted his head on the side obliviously.

"What's whipped?" Ash asked innocently.

Despite starting his training as an Aura Guardian, the young boy did not detect the increase of bloodlust coming from the two older men nor did he think to sense the rising fear among the younger generation.

"Oh, why don't you tell him, _Uncle Riley_?" Phoenix Ketchum smiled, but a vein appeared on his head and he cracked his knuckles in a nonchalant manner.

Ash excitedly looked to the man wearing a fancy looking hat, but the man under the spot light was now sweating bullets.

"Ash!? Phoenix!? Where are you two?" A female voice approached them.

"Oh thank Arceus!" Riley quickly said. "Delia, it's good to see you!"

A lovely and kind woman looked over to where the voice came from. "Ahh! Riley, it's so good to see you. How is Sinnoh? Are you tired from the journey? Would you like something to eat or drink? I have some lemonade prepared."

"Oh-oh thank you Mrs. Ketchum, but Lucario and I are fine." Riley dismissed, but was glad to distract the ire of his former teacher.

Delia smiled warmly, before her eyes turned vicious towards her husband and his partner.

" _Honey._ " She said that endearment with bloodlust even worse than her husband put out only moments ago.

"Y-yes sweetie?" Now it was both of the other two's turn to become fearful.

Ash was the only one in this group that did not notice the vein popping above her usual smile.

Delia gently walked up to her son and held him close while standing. She petted her son's head gently but then she *smiled* at her husband. "I thought we agreed you wouldn't train our son _very dangerous aura techniques_ on weekends?"

In case one missed it, Delia was very horrified with the thought of her bundle of joy gaining powers to lift cars with one arm and sensing everything around him within a mile radius. She recalled how she met her husband in him accidentally destroying her first car, and the bike she used to replace it afterwards, with his practicing of aura! And he still hasn't (Completely) paid for it yet!

"Mom!" Ash excitedly said. "It's not dangerous! Aura is so cool! And Dad and Crescent say you worry too much!"

The young boy did not notice the looks of panic coming from the Shiny Lucario and his partner/father. Nor did he see both of them making cutting neck motions to signal the boy to stop talking.

The mother laughed and sweetly petted her son's head again.

"Oh right! Ash, Serena is over at our house and she's waiting for you to bring her to Red's house."

The young boy's eyes grew even wider and shined with excitement. "Rena's here!?" He said her nickname before bolting quickly towards home.

Delia placed a hand over her mouth and laughed sweetly and honestly. "Daww, I think he has a crush on her! And what's so cute is that I think Serena likes him too!"

"Ha! Isn't that adorable!?" Phoenix laughed and placed a hand on his wife's shoulder.

Delia nodded and held the hand on her shoulder.

Then she gripped tightly on it, making loud bone crunching sounds for the rest of them to hear.

"Dear," Delia mentioned before letting go and causing the man to shake his hand. "We will talk about this later," Her husband gulped and started to sweat bullets.

She turned to the younger man and Lucario. "… How long will you be staying here Riley? Would you like me to prepare the guestroom? I can't give you the couch since someone else will be sleeping there tonight."

"O-Oh, its fine. I couldn't impose." Now the young man was afraid along with his partner. They were starting to see why this place was so peaceful. "A-Actually, one of the reasons why I'm here is to give Ash his partner." Riley said as he removed the backpack from his shoulder. He quickly rummaged through it and brought out a container with a Pokémon Egg placed inside.

Delia blinked as she saw the nicely patterned egg in the container. She looked worryingly to her husband. "I still don't know about this Nix, Ash isn't even ten and he's already getting a Pokémon?" She sighed sadly.

"Ten is for official trainers, dear," Her husband smiled and tried to relax her. "An Aura Adept has a bond with a partner when they are six or even younger due to their ability to speak to other Pokémon. But right now, we'll talk about it later. Let our son have fun with his girlfriend! Ahaha!"

[Elsewhere]

On another nearby house, Ash was standing next to a cute girl around his age with honey blond hair, a straw hat, and wearing white shorts under a long pink sun dress.

"Red isn't here?"

"I'm sorry Ash, Red left a little while ago." The mother of the mentioned trainer responded.

Serena felt a little disappointed. She had heard from Ash that Poliwags, evolve into Poliwhirls and that he had a friend in town that had a Poliwhirl. She was kind of hesitant at first since a Poliwag first scared her when she was lost in Professor Oak's summer camp, but then after it left she got to meet Ash who was a really kind and cool.

"Do you know where he went Mrs. Crea?" Ash had said her first name than her last name since he didn't know her last name.

"Oh Ash, you're such a sweet boy. I really hope you don't become as arrogant as my son. Oh that child… he means well but…" She sighed. "My son should be around the forest edges, but you two are not allowed to stray so far, so go back home please. Alright?"

"Alright Mrs. Crea." The young raven haired boy smiled, making Crea wondered where she went wrong with her son.

"Ash?" The brown eyed boy turned to the pink dressed girl beside him who was holding her arm shyly, playing with her foot and looking down into ground. "I'm sorry for bothering you."

"There's no need to be sorry!" Ash happily exclaimed. "Papa keeps telling me that I should always be nice to a lady no matter what!"

Meanwhile, Delia felt this excessive need to punish her husband more, but she didn't know why.

… It didn't stop her from doing it anyway.

"You're dad sounds weird…" Serena commented, unsure how to respond to that.

"He's pretty cool to me!" Ash smiled, beaming proudly about his dad.

Serna looked down to her feet, not because she was shy, but because she was kind of jealous of Ash having a father.

The young Ketchum was not deterred by the lack of his 'Big brother' figure, but he also didn't notice the pang of sorrow from the young girl beside him. But it was actually a good thing in this case, because with renewed energy and a new idea, the black haired boy looked over to girl with blue eyes.

"Come on! There's someone else I want you to meet!" The young boy excitedly called out to the girl before he started making his way towards the edge of town.

"Where are we going?" Serena asked.

"To the forest! I met a cool friend there!" Ash explained before moving ahead excitedly.

[?]

Pitter patter. Pitter patter. Step. Step. Step.

That was what they were doing, as the sun slowly set, no one noticed the group of cloaked figures walking closer and closer towards the outskirts of the small town.

They walked together in uncanny synchronization; one step was 30 or more different steps. One breath was more than a dozen.

They were many, but they were one.

So they sang…

" _Ooohhhoooohhohh! Sometimes it causes us to tremble!~ Tremble!~ Tremble!~ Where you there when they sealed away our lord?~_ "

It sounded like a choir, a choir of deep unknown figures.

And they were heading towards the forest nearby a small and humble town of Pallet.

[…]

Phoenix, Riley, Lucario, and Crescent stopped what they were doing and quickly stood up from their seats and looked towards a direction.

"What on earth?" Riley asked.

'There's a sudden and large amount of people around the corners of the town.' Lucario admitted before focusing his palm out. 'S-Something's not right. Their aura… it's so…'

"Twisted in such a way we've never seen in another being before." Phoenix noted before looking sensing something in the distance. His eyes widened and he started heading towards the door. "And they're on their way to where Ash's Aura is!"

At what he said, all of them, including Delia ran out the door without bothering to close it on their way out.

So it was very peculiar that at this moment, the egg Ash was to receive was starting to glow.

[Meanwhile…]

"Ash, it looks like it's getting late." Serena spoke up as she looked at the sky.

The young boy agreed and apologized to his friend. He had seen this strange but cool, glowing Pokémon around the forest one time and he wanted to show Serena. However, try as he might with his basic aura abilities, Ash couldn't spot the creature he befriended.

As the two made their way back, Ash stopped and looked back towards the forest. There was this weird energy that he had never felt before that was coming from deep within.

And he found himself being… called towards this strange energy. He was so engrossed with the strange feeling that he didn't notice Serena calling his name and looking worried about him.

+…elp…e…+

As Ash kept walking, he felt the Aura around the area turn stiff and bone chilling.

And was there… a voice calling out to him?

The young boy didn't know he was walking towards a small clearing.

Serena was scared about all of this, but she wanted to see if Ash was alright, so she stayed with him even as he was walking towards the clearing.

+heeellpp…meee…+

The young Aura slowly put his hand into the air, as if there was something compelling him to reach his hand out.

"Ash!"

Only Serena turned back when she saw Ash's father, mother, and a strange man come running towards them with two jackal like Pokémon.

'Phoenix! I can't sense that large group anymore!' The yellow Lucario telepathically screamed as he looked around.

'He's right! The air here is all wrong!' Riley's Lucario concurred to his old teacher.

Riley and Phoenix took fighting stances as they turned to the area they last felt the large presence. "Delia, get the kids!" Phoenix cried out as the mother quickly ran towards Serena and looked towards Ash.

When Delia reached for her son, something happened.

The air that Ash was reaching for dramatically tore open into some kind of strange portal. A powerful shock wave came over the group and made the two children, Ash and Serena, collapse to the ground unconscious.

"Ash!" Delia cried out as the sudden tear started sucking in the closest person into it, which was her son.

In a desperate move, she grabbed her son and threw him away from the portal, but in doing so, the tear started pulling her in.

"Delia!" Phoenix desperately screamed out as he and Riley started to run towards the mother as the tear was slowly swallowing her whole.

Sprouts grew between the aura users and Delia then rapidly grew into large vines that separated them from each other. Phoenix wasted no time and he used his aura to form two golden blades to cut the vines in half.

"Delia!" Phoenix cried out as he saw the portal… and his wife was gone the one second he lost sight of her.

"Teacher!" Riley screamed out and they turned towards all of the robed figures who seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Where is she!?" Phoenix roared with anger as he shot an Aura Sphere right at the group without rationally thinking.

The large group of robed beings side stepped and from behind the first row, a really, really small cloaked figure started walking towards the blast. The stranger lifted a tiny arm and the condensed Aura attack vanished into thin air.

Phoenix was about to attack again blindly, until Crescent stopped him from doing anything rash.

The robed figure was smaller than even Serena and Ash. Strangely, it reached for its hood, revealing that it didn't have even human hands and to everyone's surprise, it looked like a small Pokémon composed of leaves. But the strangest thing about this Pokémon was the drawn, purple-marked third eye on the forehead of the creature.

"How curious, your son opened the portal…" The creature spoke out in a human voice, not telepathy. The voice was calm, monotone, but had an eerie softness to it. It then made a motion towards itself and bowed. "I am known as Creed, or formerly known to you fragments as Celebi. To whom do we meet?"

Riley's eyes widened as he recognized the name. "Wait, Celebi, as in the time traveling Pokémon?! I thought your species were supposed to be guardians of the forest?!"

"Such a mundane existence before I was bless by the True One." The Celebi started floating then pointed to the fallen Ash. "However, as much as I would like this conversation to continue, we must take that boy with us. He has done something of peculiar interest."

Phoenix's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You took my wife! I am not letting you take my son!" He yelled as he pushed his partner away and fired another Aura Sphere at them.

Celebi waved its arm, creating a small see-able arc. Once again the sphere vanished and then all four remaining people went into a fighting stance.

"Oh how you ignorant Fragments are so prone to violence…" The marked Celebi shook its head disappointingly. "If only you knew the Truth we bring."

No one knew what the strange Celebi was blathering on about, but no one cared as it looked like all of them decided to attack the small Pokémon.

In one instant, Creed was gone and already picking up Ash with his psychic Powers.

"No, Ash!" His father cried out desperately.

Creed snapped its fingers once more and froze everyone but it in a time freeze. The twisted Legendary turned to the young boy it had captured. "Somehow, you knew the portal was here even though we were told of its existence only recently. How curious."

Creed started walking towards the air where the Portal vanished. However, something strange happened. The portal re opened and something came out and fired a blast right at the grass and psychic Pokémon. The blast caught the strange Legendary by surprise and it was sent flying back towards its followers. The cloaked figures all looked towards their leader and quickly sheltered the small legendary.

"Get back here!" Phoenix yelled before all of them threw a flash bomb into the ground. The dazzling light blinded all the four Aura users and just as quickly as they appeared, they vanished.

"Where are they?!" The father yelled as he looked around for any sign of the group of people, the Pokémon that attacked them, his wife…

But they were all gone.

Just like that he had lost every—

"Ash." Phoenix looked over towards the children and ran to his son. He scooped him into his arms and tried to call him to wake up.

"Ash! Wake up! Wake up! Please wake up!"

Eventually the young boy did open his eyes again. However, something was different. The father sensed that something was wrong with his son's Aura, it was different from before in ways he couldn't describe.

As for the second strange fact: Ash was born with two brown eyes, but now his right eye was now a deep purple color that mismatched his original left eye.

With tears finally coming out of his father's eyes, Phoenix hugged his son and cried. He sobbed under the clear night sky where he had lost almost everything.

Despite the tragedy of what occurred there was a question going through everyone's mind:

What on Earth just happened?

Unfortunately for them that question did not have a fast answer.

* * *

[Bizarre Misadventures: Ultra Tendency]  
[Chapter 1: Welcome To Pallet Town]

Eight years later, a young girl and her mother were entering into the humble town of Pallet from their long, long voyage.

"We finally made it to Kanto, mother!" A beautiful, vibrant girl with blonde hair tied into a pony tail with sparkling emerald eyes smiled happily as she pushed the wheel chair her mother was sitting on.

"It looks very quaint, Lillie." Her mother who was just as beautiful as her daughter, but looked somewhat paler softly spoke up. She still had a small smile as she and her daughter started moving. "I've spent so long in Alola that I've forgotten what the main land regions feel like."

"Well first we have to visit Professor Oak. Ms. Wicke was kind enough to tell him of our circumstance, so he's letting you stay there while I head to Cerulean City." Lillie told her mother as she saw a small wooden sign that pointed towards Professor Oak's lab.

Unfortunately for the two of them, Professor Oak had placed his lab on the highest Hill of the town and Lillie looked like she was going to have to push her mother all the way up there.

…

"Excuse me. Do you need help in going up there?"

The two of them looked over to see a young boy around Lillie's age who was wearing a black shirt under an open blue hoodie while wearing jeans. He had black hair and he was wearing a red cap with a white front with a green symbol in the center. The boy was also wearing a black scarf and carried a black bag pack with a Great Ball symbol on it.

There were several things that stood out about him besides his attire. He was carrying a bouquet of lovely Dahlia flowers in his arms, while there was a Red Riolu hanging on his shoulder. However, what was most interesting about him was the fact he had one purple colored eye and one brown colored eye.

Lillie was the first to speak up. "O-Oh no, I'm fine! I couldn't impose."

"It's alright," The boy spoke up. "I'm in no hurry, and my dad always said to help out a lady in need."

"How gentlemanly of you, thank you." Lillie's mother gave another soft smile.

"Oh right, here. You can hold these to make you feel better." The boy spoke up as he placed the bouquet of flowers on the Mother's lap and carefully took over the wheelchair from Lillie.

"Thank you for that." Lillie spoke up.

"Oh it's no problem. So how long have you two been in Pallet Town?" The boy asked.

"We just arrived today actually." Lillie responded simply. "We we're going to meet with Professor Oak about some business."

"Wow really? You guys just arrived today? So did I! But actually I used to live here before I moved to Sinnoh. It's been eight years since I last came to this place and it's almost like nothing has changed except everything looks a lot smaller." The boy spoke up as he brought Lillie's mom towards the entrance of Oak's lab on top of the hill.

"Is that so? You lived here before?" Lillie asked with interest.

"Yeah! Oh wait, I never introduced myself. My name's Ash and this rascal right here is Rojo." Ash spoke up as he then motioned towards the Riolu on the ground sticking out his tongue at him.

"I'm Lillie and this is my mom, Lusamine." The blonde girl answered back politely. "We came from Alola."

"Whoa! Alola? I've heard that's really far from Kanto." Ash spoke up.

Lillie turned her head towards the horizon behind them, as if even no matter how far she traveled, she knew where Alola was by heart. "It is far, but it's really close to my heart."

Lusamine was inhaling the purple flowers. "So Ash, why do you have a bouquet? Is there some special lady that you are going to give this to?" She teased lightly.

"Oh yeah! I was going to give it to her later today!" Ash excitedly spoke up.

"Who is the lucky lady?" Lusamine asked.

"My mom."

Lusamine kept her smile as she looked at the flowers. "That is a very sweet thing for you to do for your mother. I wish my children gave me flowers." There was a slight joking and sarcastic tone that came from the weakened woman as she said that last sentence.

Lillie somewhat narrowed her eyes at her mom, only she and her knew the weight of why that wasn't possible for a while.

"You can have one, I'm sure my mom doesn't mind sharing." Ash spoke up as they reached the front steps of Oak's lab.

"You're such a kind child, Ash. I swear all children these days are somehow becoming more beautiful without me even noticing…" Lusamine trailed off.

Lillie pressed the doorbell and after a while, a kind old man appeared in front of the three of them.

"Ahh! You must be Lillie and Lusamine! Ms. Wicke told me about your circum…stan… Ash?" The professor trailed off as he spotted the young boy. "Oh where are my manners? Come in! Come in! All of you must be tired from your travels."

The professor opened his doors wide for the three of them to enter. As they did Lillie turned to Ash, "You know the professor?"

"Well sorta. I don't recall him that well, but he was a friend of my dad and mom." Ash explained as he helped Lusamine in.

"Thank you very much, Ash." Lusamine spoke after they entered and returned the bouquet to him. Ash took it back, but kept his word and gave a single purple flower back to Lusamine who appreciated the thought.

Professor Oak closed the door behind them and spoke up. "Ash, I'm surprised you came here so early. I wasn't expecting you for another few days."

"Uncle Riley sent me sooner than I expected. I thought he called you ahead of time."

"No he didn't, must have slipped his mind. Ms. Lusamine, here let me show you to your room while I call your workers here to bring the luggage of you and your daughter." Professor Oak spoke up as he started moving Lusamine towards a different area.

Rojo, Ash's Riolu, jabbed his elbow onto Ash's leg and pointed. Realizing what his Pokémon meant, Ash looked towards Lillie. "Oh hey, I gotta visit my mom now."

"Oh, let me come with you. It's the least I can do as thanks." Lillie spoke up.

"Are you sure? Aren't you going to help your mom?" Ash looked deeper towards the Lab.

"It's fine. She's already being settled in. We'll just tell them we're visiting your mom and be right back." Lillie assured him.

It was then she shouted out loud as the two started to leave. "Professor Oak! Mother! We're going to visit Ash's mother and we'll be right back!" She then left after Ash.

"That girl, she's become so much more vibrant than I recall." Lusamine heard her daughter but then looked at Professor Oak in confusion. "Is something wrong?"

The kind old man seemed nervous. "Oh it's just… that explains why Ash had a bouquet with him…" He spoke out somberly as he looked out the door the two children left from.

[...]

Lillie was surprised that Ash wasn't going anywhere near the small houses that were in the country town.

In fact, Ash was actually walking towards the outskirts of town.

While this confused her to why his mom would be located towards the outskirts, she looked over to Ash' Riolu. "So why is Rojo colored red instead of blue? I've heard that even Shiny Riolu are yellow."

Ash stopped and looked towards his friend. The small fighting type just shrugged. "No one really knows. It's just that when his egg hatched, he was like that. Though, it will be a lot easier to distinguish him from my father and Uncle's Lucario incase this guy ever evolves."

Rojo opened his mouth, but then closed out as if he wanted to say something, but chose not to.

As they continued to walk out towards town, Lillie figured they weren't going towards any of the houses and this was slightly worrying her.

"Umm Ash? Why is it that we have to visit your mom all the way out here?"

Ash looked back in surprise. "Oh because my mom is here. She's always been here according to my uncle."

The heterochromia boy said that so simply, it started flaring warning signs on Lillie's subconscious. She was worrying if by some chance this boy was actually crazy—

"Ahh! We're almost there!" Ash spoke up, surprising and almost scaring the blonde girl. With a heart full of dread, she looked on ahead… and spotted a gravestone?

Ash walked up towards the stone and placed the flowers in front of it. He and his Riolu went down on one knee as they looked at the grave stone marked, "Delia Ketchum: loving wife and mother."

"Hey mom, I'm back. I'm sorry I never got to visit you, I was in Sinnoh." Ash spoke to the stone as if somehow, his mom could hear him from beyond.

The bad feeling Lillie was stomaching instantly faded and now she felt a little guilty for doubting Ash in the first place.

"I am so sorry." She blurted out quickly.

The raven haired boy turned back surprise. "Sorry? Why are you sorry… oh whoops! I never said that we'd be visiting my mom's gravestone! That's totally my bad! I guess I should be apologizing!" Ash laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head as Rojo rolled his eyes at his trainer's action.

"No, no. I just… didn't know your mom passed away." Lillie felt like she could empathize with Ash a bit. She lost her father when she was young and the loss of her father drove her mother insane for a while until recently when she snapped her out of her it. (Though it took a LOT before that happened)

"She passed away when I was four. I don't recall how she died, but my Uncle told me it was an accident." For the first time, Ash dropped his smile. "I haven't seen my dad ever since the accident."

"I'm… sorry to hear that." Lillie could deeply empathize with Ash on losing one parent and then another.

Ash nodded at that before looked back to the gravestone. "I'm just here to pay my respect."

"May I do so as well? Your mother must have been a wonderful woman." Lillie spoke up.

Ash didn't stop her as they both stayed quiet to pay their respect. Both of them kneeled in front of the grave and closed their eyes.

None of them realized that there was a spark of electricity dancing over the grave.

Rojo snapped open his eyes and looked above Delia's gravestone. He swore his sharper senses heard something just now.

The two were eventually done afterward and Ash looked at his mom's gravestone one more time.

"Well, I've got to go now mom," He placed his hand on top of her gravestone. "See ya—"

*FASHOOM!*

The three of them were blown away as a sudden giant wormhole appeared over the gravestone.

Lillie was the first to see it and her eyes widened in shock. "An Ultra Wormhole here!?"

Rojo and Ash turned to Lillie. " _Wait what!?_ "

It was the blonde girl's turn to stare at the two of them since she heard **two** voices that time. "D-Did your Riolu just talk!?"

Unfortunately for them all, a loud screeching noise came out of the wormhole as four small, paper looking creatures flew out of the portal and started flying around in the wind.

The three of them looked in shock as the wormhole closed. Somehow, with the loss of the strange tear, the four creatures that came out looked even more frantic and started screaming unearthly noises at a much louder rate.

"U-Ultra Beasts!" Lillie shouted out horrified.

'What the heck are Ultra Beasts!?' This voice was definitely not Ash's and it sounded like it was communicating through her head. Lillie looked over to Ash' Riolu as if he was the one that just asked that.

"Hey, look out!" Ash suddenly jumped and tackled Lillie out of the way as the ground he and Lillie were on so shortly was cut up like pieces of soft paper. (ironically enough)

The four paper-like creatures screeched out loud again, but this time they all seemed focused on Lillie and Ash.

"What's the big idea!? Who are you guys!?" Ash screamed out as he and Rojo stepped up to protect Lillie.

The blonde girl got back up and grabbed Ash's shoulder. "Ash! Those are Ultra Beasts! W-We need to leave! They're all powerful creatures!" Lillie had witnessed the power of Ultra Beasts beforehand. Even her strongest friend had trouble fighting only one of these creatures, but now there were four of them right here with only Ash and a Riolu to defend themselves?!

"K-Kartana!" They shouted as they all rushed for the three.

Lillie closed her eyes, fearing the worst. However, a few seconds passed and nothing seemed to be happening, as she opened her eyes, she saw one of the strangest things she never expected to see!

Ash and Rojo were creating a Red and Purple force field around the three of them that was slowly breaking at the attacks of the strange… Kartana creatures.

"W-What is this!? H-How are you doing…" Lillie was distracted when another large crack appeared on the dome surrounding them and Ash and Rojo visibly winced.

'Ash, these things are breaking the force field! Now would be a great time for one of your plans!' Rojo telepathically linked urgently.

"I'm thinking! I'm thinking!" Ash yelled back before he noticed all four of them retreating and raising one of their limbs high like swords— "Drop the field and run!"

In fast instant, the two Aura adepts dropped the force field and separated but not before Ash scooped up Lillie in one motion and got out of the way of all four Ultra Beasts slashing the ground and leaving a large, clean cut on the ground they were in.

"H-How did you do that!?" Lillie asked in utter shock. Was Ash able to use powers?!

"It's called Aura and long story short: I basically have powers similar to a Lucario!" Ash spoke up as he saw the Ultra Beasts all go after him and Lillie.

"They're after us!" The blonde girl screamed and pointed as she held on to Ash.

"Rojo, now! Their backs are turned to you!" Ash screamed out.

The small Riolu quickly charged energy in his palms, revealing he was using a Focus Blast and threw it towards all four of the chasing Ultra Beasts. However, the same four creatures seemed to be avoiding the attack like how a person tries to punch a falling leaf, only for it to sometimes ride the wind of the attack and avoid it.

Ash had to jink hard to the left in order to avoid his Pokémon's attack.

"They avoided that!?" Lillie shouted in horror as the Ultra Beasts still continued to pursue them. She really, really, really wished her old friends were her right now.

However, something was off. While Lillie was looking in horror, she noticed Ash… he was smiling!?

"That was it! Rojo, keep it up a few more times and follow us!" Ash spoke up as he started running.

"Ash, what are you doing!?" The blonde girl asked she held on tight for dear life.

The boy started running as fast as he possibly could with the four Ultra Beasts gliding after him and Lillie clinging on to him. "I have an idea to stop them! I just hope it actually works!"

That last sentence was not comforting.

One of the Ultra Beasts shot a slash of air towards the pair. However, Ash barely avoided this one and his scarf ended up being cut by its tail.

They finally got back into Pallet Town and Ash quickly ran faster. Lillie noticed that they were running away from Professor Oak's lab. "Ash, what are you doing!?"

He seemed to catch on to where she was looking. "I can't bring these guys near the Lab! Professor Oak and your mother are there!"

Lillie paled at the thought of these things coming even close to her mother and the nice old man she had met today then quickly shook her head. "Then where are we going!?"

"To something that may or may not be still be here from eight years ago!" Ash spoke up as another deadly screech reached their ears. One of the Ultra beasts was gliding faster towards Ash, but then Riolu stomped on the creature from the air and jumped in front of Ash.

Rojo charged another Focus Blast and fired right at the chasers. However, the explosion only seemed to push the four creatures away rather than harm them. It also didn't seem to slow them down, so the red Riolu started following Ash and Lillie.

'This plan better not put us both in a full body, six month cast again!' Rojo shouted out to his friend.

"I'm sorry, what!?" The blonde girl looked to the heterochromia boy in shock. His plans have put him in full body casts!?

"Hey, this plan is totally not like those other three plans! There aren't any random Digglets anymore!" Ash screamed back before they all avoided another slash from one of the Ultra Beasts.

The raven haired aura user looked up ahead.

"Yes, it's there!" Ash exclaimed as he ran as fast as he could towards a small lake at the center of the town.

The three got to the area and Ash quickly, but gently placed Lillie on her feet as they all stopped in front of the lake.

"W-What are we doing here!?" Lillie asked as she saw the Ultra beasts closing in on them.

"My plan. Okay, Rojo, follow my lead and we'll attack!" Ash placed his palm out and purple energy quickly started to form around his hand into a sphere. Rojo did the same and his Focus Blast was forming as well.

While the feat of a human performing something like a Pokémon move was amazing, Lillie still saw that the Ultra Beasts were coming straight for them.

Ash's smile remained undaunted as he threw his Aura Sphere…

Right into the lake!

Lillie's emerald eyes widened as she saw Rojo do the same exact thing after his trainer. "Why did you throw them in to the la—"

*BOOM!*

A large burst of water shot out of the lake, covering Lillie, Ash, Rojo, and even the Ultra Beasts in a torrent of water.

As the wave washed over all of them, Lillie was found gasping for breath and coughing out water. Ash popped up and did the same. Both of them were drenched to the skin.

Lillie felt the need to slap the back of Ash's head. "Why did—*Cough*— you do that!?" She asked with her face beet red.

"Their bodies… were… made of some… paper like substance…" Ash gasped for breath and stood back up on his feet. "The way they moved was exactly… like paper, so I thought: doesn't paper get weaker when it's soaked? And luckily for us, the lake I used to visit as a kid was still here." He started laughing before he noticed a Magikarp beside him splashing around.

'Why do most of your plans involving water end up with explosions?' Rojo walked over to the both of them but he looked relatively dry. He then threw the Magikarp right back into the lake.

"You know most of the Pokémon in Iron Island have some disdain towards water, Rojo. I seem to recall you being the first to do this when you accidentally woke up that group of Onix." Ash leered at his friend.

"Iron Island?" Lillie repeated out before looking at the area where the Ultra Beasts were. "Hey, look!"

To where she pointed, all four creatures were now soaking wet like the two humans. They were struggling to get back into the air to glide because they actually had more volume now that they couldn't carry themselves up by the wind.

Still, the four of them started to react as if being wet was some kind of horrible experience because they started wailing and screaming and then picked themselves up in the air before fleeing towards the forest groggily.

"Well, I was going to attack them after that, but… it looked like they were just scared and confused…" Ash spoke up before he noticed Rojo really was dry. "How come you're not wet?"

Rojo countered his friend's question with one of his own. 'Why didn't you place a barrier over you and Lillie after we threw our attacks in the water?'

"… Whoops." Ash spoke up before looking towards Lillie. "Uh hey sorry—"

"What is going on!? How did those Ultra Beasts appear!? And how could you use Aura!? And why is that Riolu able to talk!?" Lillie shouted out in confusion before sneezing cutely.

Ash rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"By the way, I know you asked me a bunch of questions, but how did you know what to call those things that attacked us? And did you know that strange portal that appeared over my mom's grave?" Ash asked.

Lillie realized that Ash also had questions himself that she didn't explain to him.

"That… is a long story."

"Well… so is mine." Ash offered up a silly smile before he was hit in the face with another Magikarp.

'Just so you know: there are other Magikarps that we kind of are killing right now, so we better start throwing them back into the lake!' Rojo, who picked up another flopping red fish nearby him, threw the Pokémon unceremoniously back into the water.

"Sorry about that, miss." Ash ended up saying to the Magikarp that was thrown at him before tossing her back into the water.

"You," Lillie pointed to Ash, trying to find the words after everything just now: the sudden reappearance of Ultra Beasts, the powers a human boy her age was capable of doing, the talking Riolu, and somehow ending up tossing Magikarp back into a lake!? What could she say to all of that in just one afternoon? "… are one strange boy, you know that right?"

Apparently, only the simple words came out of her mouth.

Ash only had one response to that. "Well to be fair, Lillie, everyone else is just strange to me."

* * *

[Elsewhere]

Deep within an empty cathedral, there was a man in deep mediation and song as his voice echoed through the large stone building.

 _~Where you there when they sealed away our lord~ Where you there when they sealed away our lord?~ Ooohhhh! Sometimes, it causes us to Tremble~ Tremble~ Tremble!_

 _~But where you there when the Reverend came to us?~ Where you there when he graced us with his form?~ Ooohhh! Sometimes, it causes us to shout in Glory~ Glory~ Glory!_

He prostrated himself down on the ground and cried.

 _Oh, my lord and Savior, The True one! Forgive me, a sinner, for you have abandoned me in this nightmarish realm for years! I see the lesson you are trying to show me, my lord and I shall overcome this drought to spread your love to all those worthy of it!_

 _My exile shall soon be lifted, and I shall gather the trespassers into the new world._

As he finished his finished his prayer, lightning flashed and thunder boomed. The flash of light revealed the cathedral wasn't empty, but filled with corpses…

 _Oh True One, give me the strength to free myself of these unworthy demons! Amen!_

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Hi! PG-13 here. I've always liked Ash Ketchum and even though many people like to crap on him, he's still my favorite Pokémon Character of all time. So, I've always liked the idea of him being able to use Aura, but I've always noticed that the stories that give him Aura usually make him very powerful. I mean, I have no idea what Aura actually is in the Pokémon universe, but I still enjoyed the Aura Ash stories.**

 **However, I wanted to make my own spin on this usual story. Ash here has Aura, but unlike most he's not going to be that strong. I wanted to give Ash powers, to make his adventures more interesting and fun—Example: how would Aura Ash handle against the threat of Ultra Beasts from Sun and Moon?**

 **The purpose of giving Ash powers here is not for him to curb stomp everything, but to actually make exciting battles. If you notice the title, I've heavily referenced the Anime, "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency"**

 **Without going into too much detail and spoilers, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure has some amazingly clever fights that makes different powers go up against each other in memorable ways. I fell in love with that style of outwitting your opponent and that's what I hope to bring in this story.**

 **Ash Ketchum in this story is going to be somewhat like young Joseph Joestar in his where through this bizarre adventure, he's going to be relying more on tricks and creativity rather than brute force and Chosen power. (Also, because I have no shame, expect him to predict his enemy lines before they say it.)**

 **Next, we have everyone's newest favorite game companion, Lillie! I'm sure many people liked her, and this story really started to form when I found out that (Even more Spoilers if you somehow read this far and still don't know this!) she was going to Kanto of all places.**

 **If you didn't know (Still Spoilers!) there was a part of the game when you were capturing Ultra Beasts, Looker and his 'Old Co-worker' called people who have been through the Ultra Worm Hole, A Faller, or something like that. Fallers were people who Ultra Beasts instinctively attack in order to get back home, and I, when playing that, was worried about Lillie since she didn't have any Pokémon as of that time. What if she was attacked by an Ultra Beast? Who would protect her? (Ash!)**

 **I'm excited for this story. I tried to make it unpredictable and it ties in with my other story, Bizarre Misadventures! I hope you guys will still enjoy this one though.**

 **So anyway, thanks for taking your time to read this and see ya soon.**


	2. Ch 2: The New Trainer

"Welcome To Iron Island, Ash!" Riley welcomed the young boy as he and the newly born Riolu walked into the—and we put it as kindly as possible—floating giant rock.

The child looked around with a frown after the long trip from Kanto. "Where's papa?" He asked honestly for what felt like the one hundredth time during the trip.

Riley and Lucario huddled together for a bit.

'Riley, what are we going to do?!'

"We stick with the original plan, help train Ash to be an Aura user and go from there."

'I mean about Master Phoenix. What happened was tragic—'

"It was tragic, Lucario, but we have to trust that the two of them will come to their senses. They just need time." Riley assured him. "And Ash needs someone to look out for him."

With that they both turned back towards the child.

'… Riley, Ash is gone.'

Or rather; where the child was previously standing.

The two Aura users quickly resorted to using their powers to track the young boy. They quickly found him and the new born Riolu walking towards the main cave of the island.

The young boy looked around his new surroundings and then climbed on top of a rock. Iron Island was different from Pallet Town. Despite how vast the small town was to him, it never felt as empty as this place.

He missed his dad. He missed his mom. When would he see them again?

It was then he heard grunting sounds coming from behind him. And he saw the red Riolu struggling to climb up after him.

Ash helped the Pokémon up and the young Pokémon smiled at him in thanks.

'T-Thank you!' He squeaked.

"You're welcome." Ash found himself smiling at the Pokémon. No matter what, Pokémon always seemed to make him smile.

'Are we going on an adventure?' The Riolu asked.

Ash looked around again. He no longer saw a plain old rock, but rather a treasure island filled with secrets underneath like the stories his mom told him before he slept.

"Oh wow! Yeah! There's gotta be treasure in there!" Ash spoke up as he ran towards the cave entrance with the Riolu following close after him.

Ash may have potentially lost his parents, but at least…

He had a new friend.

* * *

[Chapter 2: Friendship Building]

After that debacle with the Ultra Beasts, Professor Oak and Lillie's mother were surprised to find the two children drenched in water. After a change of clothes and an explanation as to what happened to make them both soaked to the bone, Professor Oak surprised them all.

"I was hoping to tell you all when you came back, but I suppose now is a good time as any." The old professor spoke up. "When I received the data from your Foundation, Lusamine, I recognized a similar event that happened here over seven years ago."

The professor, out of respect, said that he wasn't going to reveal the details of that event, but he did say that Ash's family is related to Ultra Wormholes like Lillie's family was.

It was one of the reasons he asked Ash to come back to Pallet Town. The Ultra Beasts seemed to react strangely to the ability of Aura, but he never had a chance to fully test it out until now.

Lusamine, on the other hand, was worried for Lillie. Ultra Beasts were creatures not to be trifled with and they were lucky that they came out mostly unscathed, but she was thankful towards Ash once again for not only helping them, but saving her daughter.

Since she wasn't at the best of health, Lillie explained to Ash the entire story of what the Ultra Beasts were and what they had gone through. However, there were some parts that were skipped over for specific reasons.

Ash and Rojo were amazed at the tale—to put it as short as possible. But they found themselves very sad for Lusamine who had Ultra Beast poison in her blood due to the event.

In return, Ash explained his powers, the concept of Aura, towards the two women from Alola. He said that some people were born with a strong soul that was powerful enough to manifest into the physical world through powers. He began a tale with one of the greatest Aura Guardians, Sir Aaron and explained that Aura had given him and other Pokémon special abilities that most did not. He went on to explain that his father was an Aura user and that he learned to harness his Aura on Iron Island where he spent years training it.

He ended his exposition in saying that he wasn't fully complete with his training to become a fully fledged Guardian, but for this last leg, his godfather wanted him back in Kanto to help out Professor Oak.

The entire day was spent with explanations and stories to catch everyone up on the same page, so they basically talked the day away and decided to start planning and tests tomorrow.

Early that next morning, Lillie found herself observing Ash closely as he devoured the food that Professor Oak happily prepared.

The idea of humans being able to use Pokémon like abilities sounded farfetched, even though she had her own adventure that really went out there.

'Hey, Ash, pass the gravy!' Rojo asked as Ash did so for the fighting type to put on his food.

"Careful, Rojo, we don't want you having another stomach cramp. Remember that one Christmas?"

'I seem to recall you challenging me and losing horribly in that pie eating contest.' The Riolu had the advantage of being able to speak while eating without sounding rude.

"That's only because you cheat with talking through Aura and distract me with conversations." Ash pointed back.

'You dare challenge the Eating Master, peasant?' Rojo declared with staged arrogance.

"You're reign of gravy terror ends today, you mad man!" Ash took on the challenge of his old friend.

"How are you able to do that?"

The two froze as they looked back up and remembered they were eating right in front of Lillie.

"Are you talking about eating?" Ash asked innocently.

The blonde girl shook her head and pointed towards Riolu. "No it's just I've only seen a Rotom be able to speak human language because he was in control of a specially designed PokéDex. I didn't know there were Pokémon that can communicate without technology."

"Well Aura allows me to communicate with almost any Pokémon, not just letting Pokémon speak in human language." Ash explained.

That caught Lillie's attention. "You can talk to any Pokémon? Does that mean you knew what the Ultra Beasts were saying?"

Rojo and Ash looked at each other at the mention of that.

'They… if they were capable of speech, we definitely didn't understand what they were saying.' Rojo mentioned.

Ash nodded. "To us they sounded more like sounds than actual words."

There was a knock on the door and Professor Oak went to see who was at the door.

He blinked after he opened the door and he saw a large group of people wearing white uniforms and some wore masks, but then the famous researcher called out to Lillie. "I believe the Aether Foundation has finally come here with your luggage."

That was an understatement as Ash and Rojo saw a large amount of fancy and well dressed people with expensive and never before seen equipment come inside the lab.

Two of them came up to Lillie and even bowed to her. "Miss, where is the president?"

"She's in the next room to the right." The blonde girl answered as most of the workers paid respect to her and promptly left.

The two boys, who had lived their life on a rock of an island, stared at Lillie in stupor.

"What?" The blonde girl eventually asked the two frozen people.

'Are you a princess?' Rojo asked out loud.

Lillie opened her mouth to find a way to answer that, but somewhat struggled to explain. "Well, no… but I have been called that before…"

"Ahh there you are children," The two looked at Professor Oak who was walking up to them. "I've been calling Bill, but for some reason he hasn't been answering my calls. I tried calling Daisy, my granddaughter who works with him, but I'm getting the same results."

"Why isn't he answering?" Ash asked only for the older professor to shake his head and say he doesn't know, but it's not sitting well with him.

"We'll have one of the men here drive over to Cerulean City and pick him up from there. The phones must be down or something." Professor Oak explained.

"Wait, I want to come along." Lillie stepped up. "I… one of the reasons why I came here was to help get a cure for my mother, but also to start my own adventure."

With determined eyes she spoke up again. "Professor Oak, I would like to be a Pokémon Trainer. Please give me a Pokémon."

Professor Oak rubbed the back of his head. "Unfortunately, I no longer have any prepared starter Pokémon."

"What? Really? Are you sure there are none left?" She pushed a little harder.

The professor saw the disheartened look on her face and thought about it a little more.

He sighed as if he was giving up on something. "There is… one Pokémon left."

The old professor walked on towards a different part of the lab where Lillie and Ash followed after him. He reached for a Poké Ball with a lightning bolt emblem and gave it to Lillie.

"There is a Pokémon there but I have to warn you that it's not very…" The professor paused for a second, trying to find the words to use next. "Cooperative."

Lillie seemed confident as she recalled something in her past. "I've had trouble with 'uncooperative' Pokémon before."

She threw the ball out and a Pikachu came out of the ball.

"Aww, it's a Pikachu!" The blonde girl cooed before she hugged it close.

"Wow good for you, Lillie!" Ash congratulated the girl on her first Pokémon.

However, Professor Oak started to speak with some unease despite the happy event going around. "Oh you'll see…"

No one but the old professor saw the vein popping on the electric mouse's head before it suddenly unleashed a powerful shock on Lillie, Ash, and even Rojo who was unfortunately in close range.

Professor Oak went on talking while the three were getting shocked. "It's also known as an electric mouse. It's usually shy but can sometimes have an electrifying personality."

The electric mouse stopped shocking all three of them, the surprise shock made the Riolu fall to the ground and into a paralyzed status.

"I-I see what you mean…" Lillie managed to squeak out.

"Shocking isn't it?" The professor dryly finished.

"W-Why didn't you warn us?" Ash weakly asked as he remained in the same position as he was being shocked.

"Believe me dear boy, I've tried." Professor Oak spoke up before taking out several unused Poké Balls and a PokéDex. "Now take this. Your Kanto Pokédex and some Poké Balls."

Lillie slowly reached for them, "T-Thank YOOUUUU!" But the moment she made contact with the professor, the Pikachu shocked all of them again.

"YOOUURRR WWELLCCOOMMME!" Professor Oak managed to still be polite despite being hit with high voltage.

Such a gentleman he was.

* * *

After that debacle, Lillie was in the process of telling her mom that she was going with one of the drivers to Cerulean City and that she was finally starting her journey as a Pokémon Trainer.

In the background of that conversation, Professor Oak decided to ask Ash something. "Ash, I know this might seem a bit much, but do you mind accompanying Lillie to Cerulean City?"

"You know, I've never seen any town besides Pallet even though I was born in Kanto." Ash admitted. "So I would love to go."

'Do we have to go with that punk!?' Rojo sneered as he leered at the Pikachu nearby Lillie.

"Rojo! We help people in need." Ash tried to reason. His answer made his fighting type Pokémon pout and fold his arms. "We'll go, Professor."

"Good. It's just that…" Professor Oak looked towards Lillie as she then looked to Pikachu.

"Okay! Time to get in your Poké Ball, Pikachu!" She got the sphere and threw it at her new Pokémon—only for it to kick it back easily right back into her hand.

"Huh?" She threw it again, but this time he bounced the ball back with his head… then his palm… then his leg again…

"That's actually some really good precision that Pokémon has…" Ash mused with a hint of being impressed.

"Not helping!" Lillie yelled back as she threw the Pokémon Ball back and Pikachu hitting the ball back into her palm, making an impromptu game of catch between the two.

"Get. In. The. Poké Ball!" After finishing that last word, she held the ball in her hand and put her free hand on her face. "Oh Arceus, it's Nebby all over again…"

Pikachu took this moment to shock Lillie, and by proxy, Ash and Rojo again.

Professor Oak had the foresight to carefully hide behind one of his equipment before the attack was launched. "Ash! This was why I wanted you to go with her!"

"I think I see your point!" He yelled over the pain.

When the attack finished, the two kids fell into the ground from the shocking experience.

* * *

Afterwards, Professor Oak found some rubber gloves lying around his kitchen and let Lillie borrow them to help drag the unwilling Pikachu in one of the Aether foundation cars (Which was technically a Limo, further making Ash wonder how rich was Lillie?). Ash and Rojo were asked to come along as well to help Lillie out.

However, while in the back of the fancy long car, Lillie was having a lot of trouble convincing her new Pokémon to get into the Poké Ball.

"Well, not all Pokémon like being in a Poké Ball?" Ash, even though this was the first time he was in a limo, offered this advice to the girl as she seemed already tired at the beginning of their ride.

'Here, let me try.' Rojo walked up to Pikachu. 'Hey there, maybe we got off the wrong foot there. Even I go in my Poké Ball sometimes. Who knows? Maybe it's not as bad as we think."

The Pikachu narrowed his eyes at the fighting type. It seemed like besides humans, he also didn't seem to respond well to other Pokémon.

"Chu Pikachu Pika." The Pikachu answered back which loosely translated into, 'Like I'm going to listen to you or your stupid looking owner.'

Pikachu did not expect the fighting type to use Sucker Punch (not the move, an actual sucker punch) right on his cheek after he insulted Ash in front of the Riolu.

'You take that back you little rodent!' Rojo furiously screamed as he then tackled the Pikachu and electricity started flying as the two started rough housing at the back.

Lillie and Ash ducked one bolt of thunder and the blonde girl asked, "Ash!? What's going on!?"

"Rojo has a temper problem sometimes. He's usually a great guy though, trust me." Ash spoke up as he put up an aura shield to stop the electricity from hitting the two of them.

The emerald-eyed girl noticed the shield and quickly realized something: "You could have shielded us this whole time!?"

Ash's heterochromia eyes widened. "Oh right. That completely slipped my mind!"

It was then, over Rojo and Pikachu fighting, there was an intercom on from the driver.

"Umm, Miss? We're almost at Viridian City. I'm going to have to gas up there before we make our trip to Cerulean City."

"Pi! Pikachu!" The electric type was pushed towards one end of the car and started charging up a lot of electricity.

Rojo, not backing down, started creating a Focus Blast.

"Rojo!" Ash screamed from behind his purple bubble, but his Pokémon wasn't listening to him right now. The aura adept clicked his tongue and increased the power of the shield around him and Lillie.

It was good timing too since the two small Pokémon unleashed their attacks.

*Boom!*

The limo windows exploded from the impact, causing the driver to stomp on the breaks.

Out of the explosion, Pikachu jumped out of one of the windows and started running as fast as he could go.

Ash quickly opened the door for him, Lillie, and Rojo to get out of the smoking Limo. The driver quickly got out and looked at the state of the car.

"Rojo, did you remember we were in a Limo!?" Ash scolded his partner after they all came out.

'You heard what he said! I wasn't going to let that slide!' His Riolu shouted back.

"W-Where is Pikachu?" Lillie asked as they all looked around. It looked like they had arrived in Viridian City.

"Here, I'll check—what?" Ash closed his eyes before he realized he couldn't sense the aura around him. There was this thick presence in the air that was preventing him from using his Aura to scan for life forms. "I-I can't find him! This has never happened before."

'Same here; something is off with the town here…' Rojo noticed that he was also having trouble with his aura.

Lillie looked worried as she glanced around the City. "Oh he can be anywhere by now." Some trainer she was turning out to be, not even a day, and she already lost her first official Pokémon.

"Lillie I'm so sorry, I didn't think that would happen." Ash apologized as if this was his fault this happened. "I should have done more to stop the two."

"What? No, I'm sorry. I guess I was just expecting that being a trainer would be just like…" She trailed off, recalling her friend back in Alola.

 _Wait… why… why did I think I could be a trainer like them? They could all do amazing things, so why… why did expect I would become like them so easily?_

Those small thoughts planted into Lillie's mind.

"I can still help!" Ash insisted, making his Pokémon look at him with surprise.

'Ash, I don't think—'

"It's the least we can do, Rojo. I'm sure Pikachu didn't get that far. I'll look this way and you stay with Lillie incase this weird feeling lifts!" Ash spoke up as he picked a random direction and started running before his red Riolu could stop him.

'Wait—! … Dang it, I screwed up again…' Rojo slacked with frustration that looked to be directed towards himself. He looked shyly towards Lillie and held his arm. 'I'm sorry, Lillie.'

The blonde girl felt horribly guilty as her mind started to see things differently. Her two new friends were trying to help her even though it was her fault for insisting on a Pokémon from Professor Oak when he tried to warn her there was no Pokémon ready for her. It was her fault for trying to force the Pikachu that obviously didn't want anything to do with her. And now? Ash was off in a place he probably had no idea where to go trying hard to help her, and here she was impairing her own journey to help her mother.

"No… I… I'm sorry." She stuttered before feeling the need to leave, the guilt was overwhelming and she couldn't think properly at this moment. "I-I need some air!" She shouted as she ran away from the trouble she believed she caused so fast and so soon.

The red Riolu looked on with surprise before running after her.

"Miss?!" The driver called out but saw the two leave his sight. He sighed and looked at the car, wondering how exactly he was going to push this towards a gas Station.

It was then he noticed a motorcycle and on it was an Officer Jenny.

"Car troubles?" She asked him.

"Yeah…" The answered her.

"Well we better hurry. Viridian City is under a curfew."

The driver blinked as he looked up to the sky, it was slowly becoming sundown. "Wait, under Curfew? Why?" He asked.

"Viridian City has been having some trouble recently with missing Pokémon. But the police have it all under control and it will be lifted soon." Officer Jenny explained.

However, the driver was around long enough to realize that when Police say they have it under control. They more than likely only say that to calm down the populace, so how would Mistress Lillie and Master Ash be when they don't know that there's something causing a curfew in this city?

* * *

Rojo followed after Lillie who was just sitting on a bench with a sad frown.

"I'm sorry about that." Lillie talked as Rojo jumped on the same bench as her. "It's just… I guess I was expecting too much of myself. I wanted to be like my friends back in Alola who were all amazing trainers that I didn't realize… it was actually a lot harder being a trainer than I thought it would be." As she calmed down, she was able to clearly think of her situation and while she felt bad, she knew this wasn't the right way to react.

Rojo found himself chuckling. 'You're a lot like Ash in that regard.' That caught the Alolan girl's attention as the fighting type swung his legs in the air and kept talking. 'I think Ash mentioned to you that I have anger issues, but Ash has this nasty habit of his as well in that he always thinks everything is his fault.'

Lillie looked at the red Riolu strangely.

'It's a long story, but Ash blames himself that his mom and technically his dad are gone. He always wants to help people, because I know, he doesn't want to cause any more trouble to anyone.'

Lillie was surprised. She thought Ash was just a really nice person. She didn't know he wasn't so caring for others out of the kindness of his heart, but to remove the guilt in his.

'It's kind of why I get so ticked off at people who insult him. He cares for others more than himself, and it hurts me to think he doesn't see himself as nothing but a burden who is worthless if he isn't helping other people.' Rojo spoke up before looking to her. 'I don't know why I said all of that. I've never told anyone that, even Ash.'

Lillie ended up petting the red Pokémon. "Because you care about him, and he does care about you. I think you told this to make me feel better and it has. Thank you, Rojo."

The fighting type turned away from her smile. If Lillie didn't know any better, she wouldn't have thought that the small Pokémon was being embarrassed at the compliment.

'I'll help you find that Pikachu. I guess I should apologize.' That last word came out very painfully to the aura Pokémon.

Lillie nodded in agreement. She was now determined to find her Pokémon and make it work. Sure the electric mouse may not like her, but she was going to do her best to understand if they really weren't meant to be.

'So how are we going to find him?'

It was then the blonde girl realized that for some reason, they couldn't find Pikachu in the City with Ash and Rojo's Aura ability. Actually, now that she looked around, this place was surprisingly empty for a city. Where is everyone?

A voice called out to the two. "Lillie! Rojo!"

Rojo perked up and looked over towards a direction behind him. 'Ash?'

Lillie quickly followed the voice, but she was surprised to see Ash with someone new.

* * *

A few minutes ago in a different area, Ash was lost. There was nothing more to say than that.

Truth be told; the only city he's ever been to is Canalave City and while the Sinnoh city had its advantages, it was still a fairly small and humble city when compared to how vast Viridian is.

Still, the difference then was that he could sense people's Aura when he was brought to Canalave to be home schooled by Riley. For some reason, there was this weird energy that was suffocating his ability to sense other people's Aura and he couldn't even find the aura of Lillie's Pikachu.

Now that he thought back, he really felt guilty. Ash recalled that Rojo was his closest friend growing up and the red aura Pokémon was always different from most Riolu besides his look. Riolu and Luacrio were said to be in legends that they were noble and just Pokémon who always stood by the righteous.

In fact, Ash also assumed that as well when he saw his father's Lucario, Crescent, and Riley's Lucario. However, Rojo seemed to have something that the other Lucario didn't have: Rojo had a bad temper. It all started one day years ago, when Ash was starting off his aura training with Rojo back then.

The lesson was simple, talking to wild Pokémon. However, a very rude Geodude insulted a young Ash and made him feel bad.

What the rock type didn't know was that while Ash was feeling sad, the Riolu got ticked off and attacked him, demanding that he apologized.

That was when they all learned of Rojo's short temper, something no Riolu or Lucario had ever been previously recorded with.

Eventually, they learned Rojo got especially angry when one thing happened: whenever someone insults Ash, he snaps and loses his cool.

The aura user in training should have done more to calm down his friend the moment the insult escaped the Pikachu's lips, but he didn't and now they were behind because of it.

He felt really bad about it.

"H-Hey *Hiccup!* there sunny! *Burp!*" Ash's heightened senses looked over to a man who clearly seemed drunk and staggering over to him.

"Y-You look exactly like my wife. You know that right?" The man slurred as he wonkily walked over to the young boy.

Not knowing how to respond to such an _open_ statement, Ash decided to ask the man if he saw a Pikachu pass by.

The man burped the smell of beer before pointing in front of him and Ash. "Ain't that one there?"

Quickly, Ash turned towards where the old man was pointing, but suddenly slouched when he realized it was just a Weedle.

"Weeeedddlllleeee." The small insect Pokémon droned on.

Oddly enough, Ash heard the dual type and immediately noticed something wrong. The Weedle had just said, 'I obey your command' in a manner that almost seemed like brainwashing.

So of course the old man would react first and quickly grab Ash and point back to the Pokémon. "Now listen here, sunny, I'm gonna teach you how to use a Poké Ball and capture that there Zapdos."

"That's not a Zap—"

"Now the key is that you gotta weaken the Pokémon before ya catch it. Don't just throw it and expect to instantly capture the guy on your first go." The flushed man then threw a Poké ball, and despite how he couldn't even stand up straight, the ball landed directly on the Weedle and actually caught the small Pokémon on the first try.

"Yahtzee! You've been such a good friend that I want you to have my first born." The man motioned to the Poké Ball on the ground before the drunk leaned on Ash completely and seemingly losing all semblance of consciousness.

The kind boy knew he couldn't just leave this old man just anywhere, so he just… propped him near a tree and took the Poké Ball the old man threw at the Pokémon.

He opened it up and once more, the Weedle droned on about obeying something, though it didn't (or rather couldn't) do much to escape from Ash. The Aura user in training wanted to try something and tried to focus his Aura on the Weedle. There, he sensed the strange fog like power over the mind of this small Pokémon.

Ash raised his brow at the curious power he was sensing and decided to try something. He gave a portion of his Aura to the bug type to shield him from this weird air around them. What he did was like undoing a spell as the eyes of the Weedle looked like they came back to life after being cloudy and hazy.

'W-Wha? Where am I? Who are you? Where's the boss?'

"Whoa! Whoa! Easy there. My name is Ash."

'Ash? Where am… am I in the human city?' The Weedle looked around the buildings that surrounded him.

"What do you mean by that?" Ash asked.

"I-I was in the forest but then I came here. H-how did I get here!? I'm scared!'

The Aura user quickly tried to soothe the panicking Pokémon. "Okay! Okay! Calm down. I promise I'm not going to hurt you, but I need your help with something. What is the last thing you remember?"

Weedle tried to think really hard, but for some reason he was struggling to recall what happened. 'Well, I remember being hungry—yeah, I was hungry since I hadn't eaten today and none of the others wanted to share with me, so I scurried around, trying to look for something when… I found myself looking towards the City that everyone kept saying to stay away from.'

Ash was curious about that. "What do you mean, staying away from town?"

'For the past week, Pokémon have been going missing whenever they go near the town and never returned. I would have stayed away too, but I smelled something really good and…' The small bug type's stomach started growling. 'Ooohhh. Next thing I know, I'm somehow in front of you.'

"I think I keep a few berries with me incase Rojo gets hungry, but I don't think he'll mind if I share you some." The raven haired boy spoke up as he took out an Oran berry and gave it to the small bug type.

'R-Really!? Oh thank you!' The Weedle admitted before attacking the blue berry.

Ash; however, tried to use his aura again. This time, instead of feeling for other's Aura, he tried to look at the energy that was suffocating the entire town. He felt this large dome like area that was suffocating the air of this city and for some reason, it felt like it was spreading from a random, tall building in the middle of the city.

Now he thought this might be a little rude, but the young Sinnoh boy—for just a second—removed his protective Aura over the Weedle.

'I obey the call…' The Weedle looked towards the direction of the building Ash sensed the focus of energy from and started waddling towards it.

Ash quickly put back the Aura Shield over him.

'Huh? What was I doing?'

Ash removed the shield.

'Yes, master, I obey…'

Ash put the shield back.

'Am I starting to have Amnesia!?'

The gears in Ash's mind started to crank. Why was it that he didn't see people around when they all first came to town? And why did it look like this Weedle have a need to go to that random tower in the distance?

It seemed like without Aura, the Weedle would look like it would go in a trance. With that in mind, Rojo probably was still acting normal because he had a natural Aura protecting him.

But Lillie's Pikachu didn't have Aura, so if it was like this Weedle…

"Weedle, I think you just helped me find someone!" Ash spoke up as he tried using Aura again. He couldn't sense Aura under this field before, but now that he knew he was under some kind of strange dome of energy, he could pinpoint Rojo's Aura within this dome.

'Wait, how did I help yoooOOUUUU!?' The little bug type screamed as Ash suddenly ran as fast as he could, making the poor bug type Pokémon hang on for dear, small life.

If Ash's Aura detection was working properly, he would have noticed two figures following him.

The Aura user eventually saw Lillie and Rojo and called out to the two, making them look towards him.

"Guys, I think I know where Pikachu went!"

"You do?!" Lillie stood up in surprise before pointing towards Ash's shoulder. "Wait, is that a Weedle?" She asked as she picked up her PokéDex and it explained what a Weedle was.

"Oh whoops! Sorry about that!" Ash apologized to the bug type as he gently placed him down.

Rojo raised his brow. 'Ash, why does this Pokémon have some of your Aura?' He pointed towards the dizzy looking thing.

"That's what I'm trying to explain. First, I've gotta see if I can use that Translator trick, so Lillie can understand him." Ash snapped his fingers, and suddenly Lillie could hear the voice of the Weedle.

'And thus the world around me mocks my presence, revealing it can split itself into three and rebuke my existence thrice over…' The dizzy Pokémon somehow started speaking like a poet.

Lillie raised her brow. On one hand, she was surprised that the Weedle was talking, but on the other hand, she was getting used to it thanks to Rojo and previously Rotom. What she wasn't used to, was the surreal feeling of hearing a Pokémon speak in poetic words.

"Okay, to make a long story short. I'm going to remove my Aura around this Weedle and see what happens to him." Ash spoke up as he did so.

The bug Pokémon suddenly stood up straight and started slowly crawling towards the direction of a tall building. 'I obey the command.' It droned on emotionlessly.

Ash then placed his Aura to protect the hairy bug Pokémon and it looked around itself. 'Oh heavens! More giants tower before my miniscule presence!'

"Maybe I've been doing the Aura thing too much on his mind…" Ash noted as the bug Pokémon seemed to still be speaking with slightly above average vocabulary.

Lillie looked to Ash. "Ash, why did that Weedle suddenly looked hypnotized?"

"It's why Rojo and I have been having trouble trying to use our Aura. There's this weird energy around the City and it's making Pokémon go to it. The only reason why Rojo isn't affected is because of his natural Aura is acting like some kind of shield that's preventing it from affecting him." Ash pointed towards the building. "I think your Pikachu might have gone there."

With that the four of them, Ash had the decency to properly carry the Weedle this time, ran towards the building that Ash pointed to.

It wasn't very grand or tall in comparison to all the other buildings plus this building actually looked very old and had a condemned warning all around it with fences and such.

The four were one block away, hiding behind one of the other buildings as they looked at their target from a corner.

'The strange energy here it's so dizzying…' Rojo spoke up as he rubbed his head to somehow mitigate the headache he was having.

'Concurred, my crimson compatriot.' The Weedle commented.

"Ash, I have a bad feeling about this." Lillie spoke up. What was making the Pokémon head towards this place?

"I know. We can't just go in," Ash spoke up before he suddenly signaled everyone to move back behind the corner.

There were some flying Pidgeys and a few Pidgeottos that started circling the building. A few seconds later, the door of the condemned building opened and all of the flying types went in through the door.

"W-What was that?" Lillie asked after they saw the doors close after them.

"This place must be the place where your Pikachu went if it doesn't have Aura like Rojo." Ash placed his hand on his chin. "But something isn't right; what's making Pokémon go in to such a random building? And why?"

'Do you think we should go in?' Rojo asked.

"Pikachu might be in there! So we have to help him!" Lillie spoke up.

Ash spoke his thoughts out loud. "Well I don't think we can sneak in without tipping whoever is inside off. And I don't think sending just Rojo and the Weedle alone would be a good idea."

'I can be careful!' Rojo defended.

"That's too risky! There's gotta be some way we can all get in without raising alarm. If only Lillie and I could… oh…" Ash's features started to slowly brighten.

'I find the look in your irises very disturbing.' Weedle commented.

'I'm with Shakespeare on this one.' Rojo spoke up.

It wasn't helping either of them as Ash recalled something on his way here and quickly looked over towards Lillie.

"Lillie this may sound weird, but how rich are you?"

The emerald eyed girl just gawked in a stupefied expression.

* * *

'I have got to stop letting Ash make all of the ideas.' Rojo spoke up with Weedle around his neck as the two Pokémon and trainers made their way towards the condemned building.

"I'll stop making ideas when someone bothers to actually help me out with them." Ash whispered back.

It took a bit, but they all got past the fence via Rojo pressuring his aura onto the simple lock and forcing it to open.

'Hark! We trespass onto dangerous territory with little reinforcements to back us! Woe to us! Woe to us!' The Weedle lamented.

'Hush! We need to start talking like we're hypnotized, remember?' Rojo silenced his back up as they walked closer towards the building.

"Ash, may I just say that this plan is even stupider than the one you had back in Pallet Town?" Lillie harshly whispered to the boy.

"It was the only thing I could think off with little options!" The boy defended. "There's no way we're just letting these two go in alone!"

"Could you at least have thought of a better plan than…" Lillie was flustered and red, not that Ash noticed. "This!?"

In case one was not fully aware, Ash and Lillie were in a Tauros costume for two which was technically a cardboard cutout meant to cover two people as they wore the hind legs as pants.

How convenient of Ash to find an open costume store while he was bumbling around the city looking for Pikachu.

Ash was currently walking the front legs while Lillie was working with the hind legs. This was obviously a new experience both of them never wanted to go through again.

As the 'three' Pokémon walked towards the condemned building, the main entrance opened up for them.

"It looks like it's working." Ash whispered.

"It really shouldn't be." Lillie wiped some sweat off her forehead.

"If there are cameras nearby, I'm betting they aren't giving us a close look. Otherwise, they would know our fur would be made of plastic." Ash deduced. "Anyway, we all have to be quiet. Rojo, you and Weedle have to keep saying 'I obey' and stuff like that."

'I obey.' Rojo droned off in either very well acted sarcasm, or very good acting, Ash couldn't tell which.

As they all walked down the dust, and broken building, they soon came across something none of them were expecting.

There was a high tech looking elevator in the middle of a condemned building and it didn't look like it could go any higher than the first floor. This only meant that if the elevator didn't go up… they were both going down.

"Okay, I did not see that coming." Ash whispered softly to Lillie as the elevator opened up for all of them.

'Aww man.' Rojo whispered as he moved forward, the elevator opening up for them. He, Ash, Lillie, and Weedle walked into the elevator and felt it going down a few levels it was also making the bad feeling in their stomachs feel even worse.

"Ash?" Lillie spoke up with obvious worry. This was starting to look far worse than she imagined.

The raven haired boy knew this and started working his head into over drive. "I'm thinking! I'm thinking!"

When the elevator opened up, the group of Pokémon was surprised to see an elaborate, underground lab. Weedle was doing his absolute best not panic and give away any sign of his weak character from showing while Rojo was mentally swearing he would get back at Ash if this somehow kills him.

From a small peep hole in the Tauros costume, Lillie gasped and spoke up. "Ash, look at that!"

There was this extravagant room with large amount of Pokémon all staring at this huge machine. On the machine was a Drowzee dancing and wearing a helmet that was connected towards the machine, as if it was amplifying his powers.

"My my, what do we have here? I've never seen that Pokémon before." A feminine voice called out.

Weedle was startled, but Rojo maintained his composure as he did his best to look forward and pretend he was under control.

Ash also had to control the Tauros face to not move an inch lest the suspect something was wrong.

Lillie tried to safely peek out one of the holes, but she couldn't properly see anyone from the angle she was in.

A new male voice sounded in. "A Tauros? I mean sure they aren't common here but—"

"Not that Pokémon, Clutch!" The female corrected quickly.

"It's Butch!"

The female voice seemed to ignore her ally. "I mean that Pokémon that's carrying the Weedle. If I'm not mistaken that's a Riolu and a red one to boot. That is a really rare catch. Looks like our Drowzee machine is working wonderfully to hypnotize all the Pokémon within the city."

The two humans inside the Tarous costume were shocked to learn that they had purposely built a machine that hypnotizes Pokémon.

"Anyway, have the two Pokémon on standby here. We're running out of room here, so move that Tauros into one of the other rooms.

" _What?_ " Both Ash and Lillie wondered in their minds before a giant claw came from above them—then crushed their cardboard costume right down the middle.

"HOLY MILTANK!?" The male voice cried out as he thought he saw the claw crush a live Tauros like nothing, but then as the cardboard fell, Ash and Lillie were exposed out in the open.

Rojo silently placed his palm into his face. 'I knew that costume wouldn't work.'

"What the—intruders!" Now that the Ash and Lillie were out of the costume, they had better views of the two people that were previously speaking.

One was a blonde female with purple eyes and a strange pig-tail style while the other was a green haired man with brown eyes. The two of them were wearing what looked to be a black uniform with a bold, red letter R on their torsos.

"Drowzee, surround them!" The male cried out, making the psychic type move the large group of Pokémon to turn viciously towards the trainers.

Lillie gasped as she saw on top of a Hitmonchan, there was her Pokémon! "What are you doing to these poor Pokémon and why!?" She demanded of the two.

"What? Do you two not know of Team Rocket? We're infamous in both Kanto and Johto!" The female bragged.

"Well, I'm from Sinnoh." Ash spoke up as he started surveying the area around him, trying to buy as much time as he could to think of something, and it seemed to be working.

"And I'm from Alola." Lillie added along.

"Oh really? Well in that case…" The female and the male smirked darkly before all the lights in the room shut off.

Lillie yelped while Ash and Rojo quickly went on guard. However, two spotlights appeared right on top of the two adults with dramatic music blasting around them.

"Prepare for Trouble!" The female started.

"And make it double!" The male finished.

"Here's our Mission, so you better listen!" They both shouted out at the same time and soon, there was dramatic background music as they continued their double monologue.

Rojo just stared and asked. 'What are they doing?'

"To infect the world with devastation!"

"To blight all people in every nation!"

"To denounce the goodness of truth and love!"

"To extend our wrath to the stars above!"

"Cassidy!" The blonde female finally introduced herself and shortly after her, the man shouted out his name.

"And Butch!"

"Team Rocket circling Earth all day and night!"

"Surrender to us now or you'll surely lose the fight!"

"RAAATTICATE! (That's right!)" A Raticate jumped in between the two after they finished the main double monologue.

…

…

"Team Rocket?" Lillie managed to speak up, not knowing how to respond to all off... that…

' _I really liked their background music though._ ' Ash mentally thought to himself.

"We usually have to thank tourists like you for bringing in such rare and exotic Pokémon." Cassidy mockingly said. "But since you've stumbled into our little secret…"

All the hypnotized Pokémon snarled at the four of them.

"It looks like we have to discipline such naughty children." Cassidy giggled.

'Ash, I take it back, do you have any more plans?' Rojo placed his arms up as the four of them came closer together.

"Huh? Hey Cass, why isn't that rare Pokémon under the influence?" The male team Rocket member pointed towards Rojo.

"Oh, good eye, Cliff."

"It's Butch!" Her green haired ally quickly commented.

Rojo started to sweat as he lifted his palms out and they started glowing red.

"Drowzee, why isn't that Pokémon disobeying its trainer?" Cassidy asked the psychic type on the machine.

'Odd, I can't seem to make it work… let me just…' The machine around Drowzee started humming louder as more electricity stared pumping out and the creepy psychic type's eyes glowed a vibrant purple.

The instant that happened, Rojo fell into his knees and started screaming and clutching his head in pain.

"Rojo!" Ash cried out and ran towards his frien—but then an electric attack from the mind controlled Pikachu made him back away from his partner.

Weedle was thrown out of Rojo's shoulder and Lillie made a motion to catch him as he was falling.

'This experience grows more foreboding with each moment!' The Weedle worryingly cried out.

"Ash? Please tell me you have something to get us out of this?!" Lillie looked over towards Ash and once more, just like the time when they were attacked by the Ultra Beasts, Ash had a look in his face that wasn't fear.

There was clear focus in the boy's eyes along with hints of anger. "You're going to pay for this…" Ash pointed to team Rocket.

"Oh? And what are you going to do about it, little man?" Bucth mockingly taunted while Cassidy and by proxy, all hypnotized Pokémon laughed.

Despite how bad their situation look, Lillie watched as a smirk slowly spread on Ash's face.

The raven haired boy pointed undauntedly at his opponents in this bleak situation. "I'm going to show you a magic trick!"

That gave everyone pause as Ash stepped back towards Lillie and Weedle. "Shield your eyes." He whispered soft enough for the girl and bug type to hear.

Ash then placed his hands together as he formed a purple Aura Sphere, shocking everyone in the room that didn't know him.

"Now!" Ash yelled as he threw the sphere up high and instead of just exploding, it flashed banged mid air with everyone else looking at it except him, Lillie and Weedle.

"Aaah! My eyes! My eyes!" Butch whined as he started rubbing his closed eye lids.

"You little brat!" Cassidy roared, "Everyone fire! I don't care how; hit that brat!"

Ash grabbed Lillie's hand. "Come on! It won't last for long!" He told her as Pokémon around them started blasting around wildly around.

"Ash, where are we going!?" Wait, didn't she ask this yesterday? But they were going away from the elevator, which was their only means of escape!

Ash pointed towards the large machine manned by the Drowzee. "Take that down and we can free all the Pokémon!"

"How!?" Lillie asked as their only Pokémon left was a Weedle who seemed unable to use lower level vocabulary.

Ash let go of her hand as she stared running and took something out of his bag pack and tossed it to the Alolan girl, it was a well crafted silver rod with a button. "That's a collapsible staff, my uncle gave me to practice martial arts, figure out a way to jam that machine!"

"W-What? Wait, what about you!?" Lillie asked as Ash came to a halt.

"I'm buying you time…" Ash took a fighting stance as all the Pokémon and Butch and Cassidy finally regained their sight and saw their intruders near the hypnosis machine.

"What the—everyone stop those brats now!" Cassidy cried out as all Pokémon fired a large amount of focus fire on the two.

Ash clapped his hands together and created a large purple Aura barrier. Expending this much Aura to stop that many attacks wouldn't last long at all, so Ash tilted the barrier to slant to his right. Instead of stopping the attacks, they would angle and slide towards a different direction and hit the wall behind the two, causing the room to shake and tearing a huge hole in the wall, but not hitting them.

The guardian in training gasped for breath before turning towards the twelve year old. "Go! I can't do that again!" Ash barked as he ran towards the crowd of Pokémon to draw their attention.

Lillie and Weedle quickly made their way towards the machine and the Alola girl spotted something she could jam the staff into to stop the machine from functioning correctly. She quickly stretched the staff to its full length and tried to stab it into the machine. However, she found herself unable to move as she brought the staff up.

In fact, she could barely move her entire body except her eyes. She quickly focused to see Drowzee psychically holding her from destroying the machine with his psychic powers.

Weedle saw this and quickly fired a String Shot—

And it didn't even hit close Drowzee and landed awkwardly onto the floor to his side.

"We-Weedle?" Lillie managed to stammer.

'Sorry, I don't work well under pressure.' The bug type deflated before he was also pinned down by the psychic type.

Things weren't going well for Ash as he was soon overwhelmed by the large amount of Pokémon and pinned down by an Ivysaur trapping him in vine whip.

"Oh how cute, you two tried to play heroes." Cassidy and Butch laughed. "Well nothing personal, but we can't let either of you two just walk out of here."

*Fwoosh!*

The Drowzee on the machine turned towards the sudden red glow heading his way and was hit in the stomach by a thrown Focus Blast.

The impact of the attack exploded and caused the psychic type to get blasted into the wall because he let his guard down.

Cassidy and Butch quickly turned to where the attack came from and saw the Riolu standing up and gasping for breath.

With the hypnotic Pokémon focusing on Lillie and Weedle, Rojo was able to get his bearings straightened out and saw what his friends were doing. Putting all of his power, he threw the Focus Blast like a base ball right for the distracted Psychic type.

'What would you do without me?' Rojo commented to Ash with a smirk.

Ash smiled as he was suddenly dropped by a confused Ivysaur while Lillie and Weedle were freed from their psychic hold.

"Uhh, Cassidy?" Butch asked his partner as all of the Pokémon they once controlled were now free of their commands and slowly asking among themselves what was going on.

"Let's make a run for it!" Cassidy exclaimed before the two bolted towards the main elevator.

Ash made a move towards them, but was distracted with the fact the elevator seemed to be moving before they made their way towards it.

"Later twerps!" Cassidy cried out as the elevator door opened, but out came a Nidoqueen and Golem walked out and rebuffed the two members.

Ash and Lillie were shocked two beautiful young women step out from behind the Pokémon.

"So this is where you Team Rocket grunts have been holing up the past week. Do you have an idea how much Blue is going to nag on me for screwing up the town while he's on vacation?!" This woman had brown long hair and blue eyes while wearing stylish clothes.

"I don't think Blue is the type of person to nag in the first place, Green." A feminine voice came from a blonde girl who looked smaller than the other woman, but she was wearing something like a bugcatcher's clothes that were all yellow and she was wearing a straw hat on her head.

"That's not the point, Yellow! He's just going to give me this condescending stare!"

"Doesn't he always do that?" The smaller woman gently asked.

"Well yeah, but this time he'll have a valid reason to!" The woman named Green growled before pointing towards Cassidy and Butch. "You two are going to feel my wrath for this!"

"W-Who the heck are you!?" Cassidy shouted back.

"Consider me the Temporary Gym Leader of Viridian City!" Green clenched her teeth before pointing at them. "Nidory, knock them out cold!" The Nidoqueen quickly grabbed the two of them and then slammed their heads together, effectively knocking them out cold.

The Raticate tried to fight back, but the Golem stepped in and promptly slapped the rat away into a wall.

With that over, Yellow looked over to both Ash and Lillie. "You two, thank you so much for helping us in this case."

"Huh? O-Oh you're welcome?" Ash spoke up, before he realized that he was still in a room filled with confused Pokémon. Quickly he looked and saw Lillie's Pikachu still on top of a Hitmonchan.

It occurred to him then that the day wasn't over.

Later…

"Amazing, you have the power to understand Pokémon's emotions and heal them?" Ash asked as Yellow healed up Rojo's terrible headache.

"I've always been born with this ability. Though this is the first time I've heard of an Aura user." The straw hat girl explained.

'Are you kidding me? Your power is a million times better!' Rojo stood up back on his feet. 'You have no idea how instant healing would have been sooo much preferred.'

Yellow giggled at the Riolu's complaint since it prompted Ash and him to argue in front of her. She then looked over towards one corner of the room where Ash's friend was talking with a Pikachu.

"Is she going to be alright?" Yellow asked as she felt annoyance coming from the Pikachu.

"Lillie is going to be fine." Ash confidently said when he looked over to their direction.

"Listen, I want to say I'm sorry with how I handled you. I didn't take your feelings into consideration and that was really rude of me." Lillie started off as she kneeled towards the Pikachu.

The Pikachu was actually listening to her now, especially since he noticed how bad she and the others looked after trying to save him and the others. He didn't really like her, but she was starting to look more like a decent person.

Lillie sighed as she placed Pikachu's Poké Ball in front of him. "If you really don't want to be my Pokémon, then I'm fine with that. I just want you to know that I really, really wanted to be your friend."

Pikachu softened at her tone and started to make eye contact with Lillie. Even though he didn't want anything to do with them, they still went out of their way to help him when he was under mind control, which was one of the nicest things someone has done for him.

Still he looked over to Ash's direction and locked eyes with Rojo. The red Riolu locked eyes with him back before putting a hand at the back of his head and rubbing it sheepishly.

'I guess I was a bit of a jerk too. I'm sorry for how I treated you guys.' The Pikachu spoke to Lillie thanks to Ash's translation trick.

The blonde girl brightened up greatly. "Does this mean?!"

'Yeah yeah. If you're willing to go that far for me, it would be mean if I just left you now.' Pikachu admitted before he was suddenly picked up and hugged by Lillie.

"Oh thank you! Thank you! You have no idea what this means to me!" Lillie cheered as she finally bonded with her Pokémon. All it took was a life threatening event with brainwashing involved—oh gosh that actually did happen.

Green stepped back into the room. "Alright everybody! Just stay here until Officer Jenny picks you all up and returns you to your trainers! As for you two!" She pointed to Lillie and then Ash. "Some guy wants a word with you," She motioned back to the room she came out from. "There's a video phone right there you can use."

Ash and Lillie looked at each other before following Green's instruction and finding an open Video Chat with a familiar face.

"Oh, Young Mistress! It's good to see you safe!" It was their driver who brought them to Viridian City in the first place.

"Are you alright?" Lillie asked the employee since she didn't actually know this man's name.

"I'm alright. However, we have a problem. The car has been damaged, and we don't have the papers to rent a new one and the damages to the car would take two weeks to fix!"

Rojo and Pikachu looked away bashfully at the mention of that.

"But we need to get to Cerulean City!" Lillie spoke up.

"Unless you want to travel over there, which will take less than a week, then we're out of options."

Lillie's eyes widened at what he just said. "I'm sorry, can you repeat that please?"

"About traveling over there by foot? Why, young mistress?"

Lillie huffed with new determination. "Time is off the essence. If we can no longer travel by car… Ash and I will make the journey by foot!"

"Whoa! That sounds like fun!" Ash excitedly said. He's always wanted to go on a grand adventure and it looks like he actually was getting his chance to.

"Are you sure?" The driver asked.

The girl from Alola nodded. "Yes! Prepare a room in the Pokémon Center; I'm going to talk to Professor Oak about this!" The new trainer boldly declared as she hung up on him.

She then turned to Ash. "Umm Ash? Do you mind if I ask you to follow me still?"

"Are you crazy!? I would love to! I've always wanted to go on an adventure!" The boy smiled.

A warm smile spread on the girl's face. "Thank you, Ash. I wouldn't have gotten Pikachu back without you."

"Well I wasn't much help. I almost got all of us in trouble." Ash tried to be humble.

"But I mean it. Thank you." Lillie said more sincerely.

Ash paused as he looked at her like that. To be honest that was the first time he was thanked that sincerely. It felt nice.

"Ehh, don't mention it. I mean—isn't that what friends are for?" Ash returned, openly calling her a friend for the first time.

…

'Um hey, so is anyone else really hungry right now?' Weedle, who was on Ash' shoulder asked everyone as he coiled in closer. 'I'm like super hungry right now.'

As soon as he said this, the group realized they were all hungry from the trails of today.

"Alright, we get to the Pokémon Center, eat _then_ we call Professor Oak and tell him our plan, everyone in agreement?"

"Yeah!" They all cheered.

* * *

[?]

"S-Stay away from that machine! You have no idea what you are doing!" He yelled as he was pinned to the ground.

A tall and imposing man stood over the scientist. "We are trying to be one with the universe, why shun something that can change people forever?"

"That was a mistake! This machine was never meant to do that!"

"It was a gift from the True One, a gift… we shall share to the world…"

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Whoo. This chapter was hard to write.**

 **I bet many, if they choose to read this far, are surprised with Lillie's first Pokémon: Ash's Pikachu!**

 **This is an alternate timeline, of course, so there's going to be a lot of different things I hope to put that make this story even more interesting and fun to read.**

 **There's obviously a lot about this chapter I wanted to put to build up the story.**

 **First was the fact that I was giving what was usually Ash's best friend, to Lillie as her first Pokémon. Now, with the fact that Lillie moved to Kanto to help her mom, I couldn't see a repeat of the Spearow Attack that made Ash and Pikachu bond so well. However, I knew that something had to happen to make the two bond, and I thought it would be a great idea to bring back the Episode where Cassidy and Butch mind control Pikachu against Ash.**

 **Next was the fact I thought First Episode Pikachu would have an interesting relationship with Lillie after Sun and Moon. (Spoilers! If you somehow by now choose to avoid everything else so far.) Think about it, Lillie was inspired by the player to be a Pokémon Trainer, she looked up to them as amazing, wonderful trainers and it only makes sense that she would want to be like them.**

 **However, Pikachu shatters this idea because of this fact: everyone starts out differently. Pokémon are different from each other, and Lillie and Ash are going to find out that Journeys are more than just strange adventures.**

 **Also, Ash is actually keeping the Weedle. I'm not kidding. The Weedle scene is based on the old games were (I kid you not) a drunk man tries to teach you how to catch Pokémon in fire red and the first games. The party for these two are not going to be standard in anyway either by stats, or character.**

 **Now two chapters in, and we're starting a fresh new adventure (that may or may not involve badge collecting—WHOA. STOP THE PRESSES.)**

 **Before I end, I would like to thank everyone for reviewing and following and favoriting this story. I do appreciate it.**

 **However, there are some things I need to address.**

St. Elmo's Fire **told me to change a few things and I do appreciate it, but I decided not to** **completely** **change how I make line breaks. From previous experience, these types of line breaks allowed me some more flexible form of writing that isn't set in stone and allows me to make some 'bizarre' structures. And if they are jarring, I can change them in such a way they don't have words in them anymore. Second, he also asked me to set the story under a specific Anime category, and while that may make this story easier to find, I would rather not do that since this story takes on elements from the games (Lillie), Anime (Ash), and Manga and it wouldn't be fair to the others.**

Sceptileman12 **had a comment that made me smile. I've never actually seen an Ash and Lillie ship before. Though, it does sound like a lot of fun.**

AngelMaster14 **, thanks for the questions and showing interest in this story. I have some ideas to what you're asking and I hope I deliver.**

Mandriel – **Thanks for the kinds words, but actually, there are a lot of stories where they give Ash aura.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading.**


	3. Ch 3: Bug Town Funk

Weedle blinked as he looked at the bowl in front of him.

'What's this?' The bug type asked, making Ash blink in a confused manner so early in the morning.

"It's your breakfast. We're going to get on the road in a bit, so it's a good idea to eat a lot so you're energized and well." Ash explained before he put a similar bowl near Rojo as the three of them were in their own room away from Pikachu and Lillie.

The Weedle stared at Ash as if he suddenly grew a second head that was breathing fire. 'Y-You're just giving me food? I don't have to earn it by doing something?'

"What? No." Ash told him. "I don't do that. Just have a reasonable appetite and you can have as much food as you want."

'You only say that because you always pig out on our food!' Rojo commented nearby.

"Hey! Looks who's talking, Mr. I-Ate-Our-Entire-Thanksgiving-Feast!"

'You and the others were taking too long, dang it!'

Weedle tuned out Rojo and Ash's bickering and focused on the meal. This was the first time someone fed him without the need for 'work'.

He started nibbling on the food—and it tasted really good.

It was free food from very nice people who weren't in anyway mean to him. It tasted really, really good.

So good in fact, Weedle found himself tearing up a bit.

… There was a chance that he wasn't crying because of the rich flavors.

[…]

"Okay! So before we get to Cerulean City, we have to stop by Pewter City and Mt. Moon." Ash looked towards the map as everyone started making their way out of Viridian City and pointed in one direction. "So we need to go south!"

Lillie looked at the map the Sinnoh boy was reading then she borrowed it from him and flipped it right side up before giving it back to him.

"I mean north!" Ash quickly pointed in the opposite direction.

'Well that explains why we kept getting lost in Iron Island even though we've been living there for more than five years…' Rojo rolled his eyes.

'What about you if you've also been lost in those five years?' Pikachu looked down on Rojo from Lillie's shoulder.

The fighting type glared at the electric type.

"Both of you behave or else you're both going in your Poké Ball." Ash spoke up as he continued to read the map.

The two Pokémon grunted and turned away from each other.

Weedle, who was on Ash's shoulder, looked at the map. 'Hmm, how does one even read this?' Thankfully, whatever was causing him to talk in bigger words stopped as soon as the Drowzee was knocked out cold. Still, some semblance of poetry did come out of his mouth every once in a while.

"It's not that hard, I'll show you it later. As for right now, according to what Yellow told us before we left, we're heading towards Viridian Forest before we reach Pewter City." Ash started folding the map.

"Hmm…" Lillie hummed in agreement as she read an official Trainer's guide.

"Is something up?" Ash asked.

"Well, looking at Weedle reminded me of something: if I am beginning my journey, I should capture other Pokémon as well," Lillie closed the book and took out an empty Poké Ball before looking at Weedle. "That reminds me, how did you come across Weedle, Ash?"

The raven haired boy wondered how to word it, so he just decided to tell the truth. "A drunk guy caught him and gave him to me."

They all stared at him.

'I don't remember that.' Weedle tried to recall the event, but literally it was all just a blur to him.

"You were brainwashed at the time." Ash admitted so casually that it sounded surreal coming out of his mouth to everyone including him.

'Okay, am I the only one hearing what's coming out of his mouth?' Pikachu noted. It sounded all kinds of shady and outlandish.

Rojo narrowed his eyes at the Pikachu but said nothing.

"We should probably think of a different story of how you got Weedle." Lillie offered.

"It might make a great ice breaker though." Ash optimistically noted.

"Anywho, while going through Viridian Forrest, I think I should capture the next Pokémon I see!" Lillie excitedly spoke up.

Ash and Rojo looked beyond the path they were walking. For some reason, they were both sensing a lot of Pokémon heading their way pretty fast.

Weedle then squinted his already tiny eyes to look ahead. 'Hey wait a second, I know this pla—oh no! Guys, run!'

Unfortunately for all of them, the warning came late as out of the bushes jumped out some Paras. Quickly, Ash instinctively made an aura dome around them to repel the grass and bug types. However, a large swarm of Beedrill flew over and surrounded the group.

'Oh dear!' Weedle panicked as he ducked into Ash's hood.

"What's going on!?" Ash yelled as he looked around to see all the Pokémon surrounding them.

Rojo felt the ground shaking and quickly looked behind them—only to see a Parasect bust out of the ground.

Before any of them could react, the evolved Pokémon let loose a Spore attack within the closed bubble, making the four of them instantly fall asleep and make Ash put down the forcefield.

'Alright, hurry up and pick these bozos up! The boss is going to be pretty happy about this!' The Parasect called out as the Beedrill came up and picked up the sleeping Ash, Lillie, Rojo, and Pikachu.

As the bug Pokémon started carrying the group, Weedle peeked out of Ash's hood.

'What's going on?' He asked only to see around six of his evolved forms carrying Ash in the air as he popped out of the hood.

'Huh? Hey! One of em's awake!' One of the other flying bug type surrounding him pointed and swooped right for him.

Weedle yelled in panic before jumping off, and then quickly realizing he was falling in the air.

He quickly tried to use String Shot on Ash in his stomach, but ended up accidentally hitting another Beedrill in the face as he swung from their momentum in the air. The Beedrill panicked and suddenly stopped moving. Even though that happened, Weedle's movement from falling didn't stop and made his webbing stretch out, causing swing him like an acrobat before it snapped and made him launch right into the Beedrill that was carrying Rojo. That ended up making a domino effect because right behind that Beedrill was the one carrying Pikachu and it got hit too, dropping both Rojo and Pikachu from the sky with Weedle plummeting with them into their doom.

Weedle flailed and screamed uselessly as he started falling from the air until a desperate idea came to his mind.

He inhaled then shot out all of the String Shot he possibly could right below him and the other two.

Splat!

…

Weedle slowly opened his eyes to find himself fine, but stuck to a pile of webbing that softened his landing. 'I-I'm Alive!? I'm Alive!—'

It was at this moment that Rojo and Pikachu fell on top of him. (And one could hear a very faint groan of pain underneath them.)

Back in the sky, the Beedrill looked at the lost Pokémon.

'Should we go after them?'

'Nah, we got the humans! That's all we needed, so let's go!' One of the leaders spoke up as they started to carry the unconscious Ash and Lillie away.

Back down below, Weedle slowly squirmed underneath Pikachu and Rojo's combined weight and popped himself out of between them and the web pile he made.

'Owww…' He moaned as he felt his entire body ache.

The bug type slowly looked back to see both Rojo and Pikachu waking up.

'Why does my head hurt?' Rojo groaned before he found himself stuck to the ground in a large pile of web.

Soon, Pikachu found himself awake as well, and the first thing he noticed was Rojo's face. 'Why didn't you sense that guy who put us to sleep?!'

'I was kind of distracted by the swarm of Beedrill surrounding us!' Rojo snapped back as the two stared down at each other angrily.

'Guys! We have to save Ash and Lillie!' Weedle managed to say.

The other two Pokémon looked at the bug type. 'Weedle, do you know something about those guys?' Pikachu asked.

'Weellll yeeaahh." The small bug type slowly lowered his head towards the ground. 'I was sorta one of their lowest grunts before I wandered near town.'

Pikachu raised his brow at the answer. 'Wait, grunt? You were a grunt? Weedle, who are those guys?'

'We call ourselves, the Bug Kingdom. We're a new group that commands a large territory of the Viridian Forest under our Big Boss. He's a Pinsir, but he's like the strongest, fastest, and smartest Pinsir you guys will ever meet. He's the one that organized all the other Bug type Pokémon groups under his rule.'

'Aaannnndddd this guy has Ash and Lillie with him now,' He sighed. 'While there's just three of us.'

'So that's why you seemed to recognize them, but why did they take Ash and Lillie?' Pikachu slowly got out of the web pile with Rojo.

'I think I have a good guess, but we should hurry! I know where they're taking them.' The small bug type looked towards the center of the forest.

…

'Um can someone carry me? If I led, it would take us like three hours to get there.' To emphasize this, Weedle motioned to his stubby legs that he couldn't actually move that fast.

Pikachu looked to Rojo. Without words, they knew this was going to be a long day.

[…]

Lillie woke up with a headache and when she opened her eyes, she found herself tied to Ash in a web cocoon surrounded by bug Pokémon underground in some kind of large opening under a very, very large and old tree, considering the size of the roots tangled everywhere as far as she could see.

She really was hoping things like this wouldn't happen on a day to day basis.

"Ash? Ash, w-wake up!" The blonde girl tried to stir the Aura user beside her.

The boy she was tied to was slowly moving again. "Five more minutes, Uncle…"

"Ash!" She whispered harshly again.

This time, the boy did awake suddenly. "Huh what!? … Where are we?"

"That's what I was going to ask." The blonde girl told him. "Can't you break out of here?"

Ash looked at the web surrounding them and all of the bug type Pokémon. There were a Lot of Weedles, Kakunas, Paras, and a few dozen Pinsir in this large underground area. "I can, but what's stopping them from overwhelming us and trapping us in a better place?"

Lillie sighed, seeing Ash's point. If he did break them out, there wasn't much stopping them from overwhelming Ash and doing it all over again.

"Hey, wait, where are our Pokémon?"

Ash quickly scanned the area with Aura. "I don't sense them nearby. The three of them might all be out of range… are they going through our stuff?" He trailed off as he spotted in the center of the room both Ash's and Lillie's bag was opened up and tossed aside as all the items on the ground was being surveyed by the Pokémon around on the ground with all of their stuff on the floor.

"What are they KYAAAHHH!?" Lillie blushed and shrieked as some of the Pinsir went through her and Ash's…. more private belongings.

The raven haired boy followed her line of sight. "What are youWHOA!? I didn't see that!" He flushed as he quickly closed his eyes shut when he realized he wasn't supposed to be looking at a lady's hidden clothes.

It wasn't fully helping that with his eyes closed, he could still sense the Aura silhouettes of the Pokémon going through all their stuff and how Lillie's emotions were in turmoil at the embarrassing thing.

"What are you idiots doing!? Stop going through our stuff!" Lillie yelled at the top of her voice, finally letting all the Pokémon in the room focus over to them.

'So you Humans are awake.'

"!?" Ash opened his eyes and followed the voice towards one corner of the room where the roots of the giant tree seemed to focus around one corner of the area. His Aura detected a much stronger, bigger Pinsir who had a large scar across his right eye and was slowly making his way towards them. All of the Pokémon before him moved out of the way in respect for this Pokémon.

'You're a lot louder than I expected.' The bigger Pinsir crossed his arms as he looked towards the hanging cocoon of the two.

"What do you want with us?" Ash asked which was then followed by…

"And why must you go through our stuff!?" Lillie yelled, making Ash do his best not to look back towards the center.

The Pinsir scoffed. 'You're only here as insurance, nothing more. I need those things you humans always carry around.'

The heterochromia boy raised his right brow at that. "What we always carry around?" There was something humans had that wild Pokémon didn't? Which one? There were technically a lot.

'Hey boss! I found them!' A Pinsir nearby their stuff screamed out, making them all—except Ash—look at their direction. The normal sized Pinsir poured stuff out of Lillie's bag, and five spherical objects fell into the ground.

"Poké Balls?" Lillie spoke up, letting Ash hear her. "Why do you want our Poké Balls?"

* * *

'Whoa, whoa, whoa!' Pikachu shook his head as he and Rojo stared at Weedle—who was being carried by Rojo. 'Could you repeat that?'

Weedle sighed. 'It's not that hard to understand. The Big Boss wants to own all the turf in Viridian Forest, but our biggest rivals are a group of Spearows lead by their leader, a really scary Fearow.' He explained from the beginning. "So far we've always been in a stalemate, but Big Boss hates the idea of being equal to his enemy, so before I got to Viridian City, he gave out an order for all of us to alert anyone to find a trainer and bring them to him."

'Any trainer? Then why ours?' Pikachu asked. 'Why were we the victims?'

Riolu seemed to think. 'I think that's because of what was happening before—you know the mind control? Everyone in Viridian City was under Curfew and looking for their lost Pokémon, so there was barely anyone wanting to leave Viridian City in the first place except us afterward… but what do trainers have to do with him ruling the forest?'

'I told you guys already! Trainers have Poké Balls!' The bug type huffed. 'And if Pikachu would have let me finished, I would have told you both that Big Boss is planning to use the Poké Ball against Fearow in one last battle for dominance over Viridian Forest!'

'Wait, Pokémon can catch other Pokémon?' Pikachu asked again before looking to the red Riolu. 'Can we do that?'

'I never paid attention to how it works, but I don't think it's impossible.' Rojo offered. 'But either way, I'm starting to see why he kidnapped Lillie and Ash. If it doesn't work, he could force them to do it for him.'

'I can't believe I'm sticking out my neck for those guys.' Pikachu sighed, making Rojo abruptly stop.

'This coming from the guy we had storm an underground, brainwashing lab for?' The Aura Pokémon narrowed his eyes dangerously at the electric Pokémon.

'Do you have something against me?!' Pikachu turned on his heel and started gathering electricity in his pouches.

Weedle saw this coming and quickly spit out two shots of web: one to Pikachu's mouth and one to Rojo.

'Okay, I get it! You two don't get along, but if we have even a ghost of a chance to rescue Ash and Lillie from my old gang, we have to work together!' The bug type shouted out loud.

It was then Weedle blinked in surprise: where did that power—that self-confidence come from? All his life he was looked down on and seen as pathetic, so why was it he could suddenly find himself calming down two Pokémon obviously stronger than him?

The other two Pokémon looked at each other one last time before seemingly reaching some kind of silent understanding.

'Oh well umm… splendid! We're almost there anyway!' Weedle looked towards the direction in which even they could see a very old and giant willow tree. 'That's where we all station ourselves.'

Pikachu and Rojo removed the web from their mouths.

'By the way, where is this other gang of flying type Pokémon?' The red Pokémon asked.

'We don't know, but we do know that they sometimes try to steal our food once every night. They might be preparing for their final confrontation right now.'

'In other words, they'll be heavily defended.' Pikachu sighed.

'Do not tax yourselves, friends! I've been there long enough to know a few pathways we can use.' Weedle declared proudly before realizing something. 'You guys are used to the smell of ordure, right?'

Rojo and Pikachu blinked before both speaking at the same time. 'What's ordure?'

[…]

"So what are you going to do with us after you're done?" Ash asked the leader Pokémon after he explained his plan to the two humans.

'I have no need for you afterward, so I suppose I can just let you go.' The Pinsir mused.

"Really?" Lillie asked hopefully.

'I don't see why not as long as you two don't double cross me.' The Pinsir crossed his arms. 'I want to rule the Viridian Forest, nothing more.'

Ash asked the Pokémon leader something. "In that case, could you please let us go from here?"

'No, I don't trust you especially since you can talk to us so clearly.' The Pinsir narrowed his eyes before walking away. 'Everyone, get ready and someone close the mouths of these two so they don't bother us anymore.'

"Hey wai—" Ash and Lillie immediately had their mouths webbed shut by some random Weedles before another Spore Attack from some Paras put them to sleep.

The Pinsir with a scar ordered his underlings to get ready. He purposely sent a provoking message to the Fearow gang a while back and he was sure they were on their way right now.

* * *

Back with the unlikely trio of Pokémon, they all carefully peeked out of a bush.

'I can see why you guys chose this as a base. It's hard not to see it as one.' Pikachu stated out loud.

They were finally in front of Weedle's old hangout, a very old and giant olive tree with many holes enough for a lot of Bug Pokémon to hide in. On the outside of the giant tree, there were some Kakuna just waiting to evolve and join the other Beedrill patrolling the air around the tree while the ground bound Pokémon were carrying fruits and other goods in and out of the tree.

'It looks like they're preparing for a fight. Is the fight with the Fearow group really that bad?' Rojo observed how heavily fortified they were. He even spotted some Pinsir and Paras creating wooden spikes to ward off anyone flying close to the larger holes and gaps of the tree.

Weedle shrugged. 'It always sounds bad. People like me who can't fight well huddle up in the underground tunnels and just wait for the fight to end. We can use one of the escape routes to sneak in.'

They all quickly ducked backed into the bush when Rojo sensed a patrol group flying over them. As the patrol of Beedrill flew by, Rojo looked to Weedle.

'We should take that path, there's no way we can get to Ash and Lillie with how fortified they're making the base.'

'Just escort me over yonder that tree, and I'll point it out.' Weedle used his stinger to point in which direction they would take.

With a little more sneaking, they were led to one of the escape holes and slowly made their way inside. (Though, Pikachu and the Riolu wondered why the place smelled so weird.) Rojo and Weedle were leading because Rojo could sense Aura, and pinpoint Ash's unique Aura and Weedle because he knew the paths.

As they kept walking down the path, the less light the caverns had and the red Riolu of the group lit one of his palms with a dim red glow. It wasn't very bright, but it was enough to keep the others from tripping over unseen rocks.

However, as they were going down, a thought occurred to Pikachu. 'Why are the flying Pokémon attacking you so much? I mean, if you guys really do prepare this hard for whenever they arrive, it sounds to me like its more trouble than worth with how organized you all are.'

The small bug type paused. 'I-It never occurred to me to ask why they keep attacking us and trying to take our food. Though from rumors, I think our boss and their boss really despise each other.'

Rojo slowed Pikachu down by making a stop motion and then looking up. 'I sense Ash and I think Lillie right above us, but they're surrounded by guards.'

'Well there's shouldn't be that many when the Fearow gang begins their siege.' Weedle offered. 'We could just wait for more guards to leave then rescue them!'

The red Aura Pokémon let that thought sink in. 'So… we just wait here?'

There was no one that answered him and eventually they found themselves all sitting on the ground in awkward silence.

That was until Pikachu spoke up. 'Why do you hate me?'

Rojo perked up as he saw Pikachu staring directly at him. The electric mouse asked again. 'I know I didn't make the best of first impressions, but I think there's another reason why you don't like me.'

The red Riolu was caught off guard by that before he seemed to look away into the darkness and rub the back of his head.

He seemed to think about it as the fighting type huffed, tried to say something, but then stopped and just ended up sighing. 'As you know, I'm not very good with others. Honestly, I don't really trust this guy around my neck if he wasn't so wimpy.' It looked like after some thinking, he was going to just tell the truth.

'… Yeah, I'm wimpy…' Weedle sadly admitted.

Rojo quickly pointed to Weedle, 'See this is what I'm talking about! I'm… not good with others. Ash and our teachers were my only friends, so I end up either, not interacting much with others, or just straight up don't get along with them.' He then sighed. 'I… I'm not good at making friends.'

'Oh then you're like me then.' Weedle surprised the fighting type. 'I was always seen as useless by everyone around here. Even the other Weedles here just ignored me, but you guys? You've been so nice to me, even though you know I'm useless. It kinda makes me feel like I belong here.'

Rojo was silent for a second until a smile came across his face. 'Ha. I guess you're right. I don't know where I would go without Ash. Hahaha! Wow, I am just as pathetic as my trainer, no wonder I'm so loyal to him.' The red Pokémon stared laughing at himself before looking at Pikachu. 'So, I don't really hate you, I just… don't really like someone insulting Ash, because he's my best friend.'

It was now Pikachu's turn to look away. 'That sounds… nice. I didn't really have anyone to rely on.'

Before anyone could talk about that, the ground shook.

Rojo looked up and closed his eyes. His aura senses extended as far as he could to find a large amount of Pokémon attacking the tree. His sensing focused back to Ash and Lilie as he sensed that most of the guards around their trainers were leaving to help the battle up above.

The fighting type stood up, making Weedle yelp at how fast he did it. 'They're gone. We'll get Ash and Lillie now. Weedle, how do we get up there!?'

The fidgeting Pokémon managed to calm himself and point in the direction where they needed to go.

On the floors above them, two Paras were watching the two sleeping humans.

'Man, you would think these people would have woken up from that.' One Paras said to another.

'We hit them with a few Spore hits they should be out of it for a while.' A different guard spoke up.

'Yeah but do you hear that above us?' As if on cue the tree shook hard and sounds of muffled Pokémon attacks came from outside. 'You think they would still be awake from all the noise and shaking.'

The first Paras thought about it for a while. 'Hey, what are the chances both of them are just pretending to sleep?'

'What? One sure, but both?'

'Maybe…' The Paras then turned to his fellow guard after looking back thoughtfully at the two. 'Though it is kinda wier…'

That one Paras was not expecting to see a smiling Pikachu with his sparking cheeks standing right in front of him suddenly.

The Paras made a cartoonish gasp before Pikachu promptly unleashed a powerful shock on the grass and bug type.

Rojo finished knocking his Paras out cold before looking up to Lillie and Ash. 'You guys can wake up now.'

Ash and Lillie opened up their eyes while Ash promptly unleashed a burst of Aura that pushed away the web and made them both land on the ground.

"What took you guys so long?" Ash asked with a smile before looking towards Lillie. "And you also thought about pretending to still be asleep?"

"It was a good idea to if they were going to keep doing that too us. I was just hoping you would think of something to get us out of there." The blonde girl then quickly darted her head to look around the room. "Now where's my stuff!?"

Ash coughed as he let Lillie run towards the pile of clutter in the middle of the room containing both of their things. Pikachu followed after her while Ash stayed behind with Weedle and Rojo.

"You two seem better. I've been meaning to let you two bond, but this wasn't exactly how I wanted it to go." Ash laughed a bit.

'Oh come on, don't you remember that time we had to save that Diglett from that angry Skymory? We bonded over that training mission gone wrong.' Rojo dismissed.

"I was still surprised to learn Diglett have feet…" Ash muttered as he thought back to that time.

'Wait, Diglett have feet!?' Weedle and Pikachu exclaimed in shock.

Lillie and Pikachu came back but the girl was even more miffed than before and she ended up walking to Ash and shoving his bag to his chest a little forcefully.

Realizing she might have put his own personal stuff in, and seeing the flustered look on Lillie's face even though she was trying really hard not to look at him directly, (He could even see her red face in this dark room and briefly wondered if it was glowing.) It occurred to Ash that Lillie might have hastily put in some of his undergarments back into his bag.

"Thanks, Lillie." Ash managed to say with some nervousness before opening his back and finding rocks and dirt crammed into it along with most of his stuff and clothes, probably because they were all shoved back in when Lillie realized what they were.

"Let's never talk about this again!" The flustered girl demanded.

"Agreed." The boy picked his collapsible staff out from the bag—shook off some dirt—and looked towards the three Pokémon. "You guys do have an escape plan right?"

The only response all three Pokémon gave was to blink at the boy of the group.

'Ooohhh! So that's what I was forgetting!' Weedle spoke up in recognition.

'Wait, can't we just use the tunnels we came in through?' Pikachu asked.

'Well, unless they have the power to shrink, no. The escape routes are for smaller Pokémon like us. And the only entrance big enough for them to fit through is the main entrance.' The bug poison type paused since even though no one but the small Pokémon knew where the main entrance was, they all had a pretty good idea why they couldn't just walk out of here.

The tree shook again as more the battle raged on outside.

'I don't want to go out through there.' Weedle commented.

"So how do we get out?" Lillie looked towards Ash.

The raven haired boy rubbed the back of his head. "Getting out isn't really a problem. Trying to get out unnoticed or unharmed is the tricky part…" As he started thinking, he used his Aura to survey the fierce battle around them, when he sensed something…

Ash quickly put up another shield dome around all of them as something suddenly crashed through the ceiling and covered the room with dust.

The Aura user placed the forcefield down as out of the smoke came a booming laughter.

'HAHAHAHA! I finally did it!' The scar-eyed Pinsir victoriously yelled as he proudly held a Poké Ball into the air with his arm. 'Not so tough now, are you?'

As the boss Pinsir turned around, he noticed the escaped humans, the three new Pokémon, and two of his guards out cold.

Ash, seeing the look of shock on the mighty Pokémon's face acted quickly in trying to eloquently talk out of this situation. "Umm this isn't what it looks like?"

Unfortunately, he did not have enough points in the conversation skill.

"So uhh, you're going to still let us go right?" Lillie added in much to the surprise of Pikachu and Rojo.

'They were going to let you go!?' The two Pokémon screamed in surprise.

'Oh right, he might actually have done that.' Weedle realized as he thought about it more.

' _Weedle!?_ ' Now the fighting and the electric type yelled at the bug type for forgetting something like that.

There was a loud cracking sound as the boss Pinsir stepped on a root and crushed it with little effort or without him noticing.

'I seem to recall saying I would do that if you did not cross me.' He spoke in a low tone as his eyes dangerously narrowed towards them then pointed to his injured underlings. 'What do you call that?'

'You need better guards?' Rojo started to sweat as he took a fighting stance. Even though injured, they could all sense this Pinsir was out of their league.

The bug type took one step forward then Pikachu ran up ahead to the surprise of everyone and jumped high to launch a thundershock at the bug type. However, the boss bug type knew Quick Attack and not only dodged the attack, but jumped up and slammed Pikachu into the ceiling.

"Pikachu!" Lillie cried out in worry, but the moment Pikachu was rammed into the ceiling, the Scar Pinsir reclined one of his fists that started glowing, signaling a Brick Break move he was about to unleash on the hurt electric mouse.

However, instead of using the attack to punch the rodent through the ceiling, the Pinisir used it to counter the Red Riolu jumping and attempting to use Force Palm on him. The Pinsir's attack overwhelmed the red Pokémon and smashed him to the ground like a tennis ball. As he started to fall back down from gravity in that action-packed moment, he threw the Pikachu he pinned down right at Rojo, making the two Pokémon look out classed.

"Guys!" Ash cried out before he noticed several Beedrill coming down the hole and heading towards him and Lillie. The boy clicked his tongue and opened his staff before warding off the Beedrills that were heading his way.

Pinsir stalked over towards Rojo and Pikachu. The electric type found himself coughing in pain because his lungs were still contracted from the pain of being slammed into the ceiling. Rojo got up and saw this, but he also saw Pinsir heading towards them with increasing speed.

The boss then lowered his head, putting Pikachu in the range of his pincers and using Quick Attack—

'Guh!?'

Pikachu opened his eyes to see Rojo had gotten in between him and the charging Pinsir. Rojo was glowing a bright red as he was using his palms to hold back the mighty Pinsir. However, whatever strength boost the Aura was giving the red Pokémon, Pinsir was slowly pushing the fighting type back.

'What are you doing!?' Pikachu asked.

'Saving you! Now get out of the way!'

'Why!?' The electric type coughed and tripped back to the ground.

Rojo thought back to the last thing Pikachu said before they saved Ash and Lillie and managed to turn back towards him. 'I think I f-finally understand why I didn't like y-you: you remind me too much about myself if I didn't have Ash! I'd probably a weary jerk too, but deep down, I do want to care.'

At that point, Rojo was pushed back heavily by Pinsir. 'Never lose focus on your opponent. A fatal mistake.'

The scared bug type overpowered the fighting type, but Pikachu launched another thundershock at the boss of the forest. The attack hit, and the powerful Pokémon wailed in pain.

However, the bug type powered through and used Brick Break to punch Riolu and make him hit Pikachu, forcing them both to slam into the wall and bounce off.

Pinsir was going to finish them off until he was hit in the back by a piece of web. The mighty Pokémon turned around, only to see Ash's Weedle shivering somewhat.

'You? … So you have returned. I'm glad to see you're safe.' When the Pinsir looked at Weedle, it was if the giant Pokémon suddenly lost all urge to fight.

'I-I-I'm honored y-you e-even rec-cognize m-me, b-boss.' Weedle managed to stammer though his shaking body. Then he inhaled, stopping his shivering and yelled. 'But stop it! Those are my friends!'

Pinsir walked closer to Weedle. 'You're friends? Did you forget who you are? You are part of my gang!' He towered over the small Pokémon and folded his arms.

'I-I-I… I'm not anymore! I quit! And even if it's you, I will defend them! I will fight for them!' With great courage welling up inside Weedle, a bright light enveloped him as the entire room looked up to see that Weedle was evolving!

… Into a Kakuna.

Then he lazily tipped over and rolled to the floor.

'Uhh what happened? Hey!? Why can't move!?' The Cocoon Pokémon wiggled, but just found himself rocking himself back in forth in a body with no limbs.

'Well we're screwed.' Rojo managed to mutter as he was still trying to get off Pikachu.

Pinsir stood over the newly evolved and surprisingly even more useless Pokémon. 'If you take back what you said, I will spare you.'

'Never!' Kakuna defied. Even in a worse state than before, he refused to back down. 'I meant what I said and I will fight you if I have to! … I just don't know how to!' Kakuna just found himself wiggling pitifully on the ground.

'Last chance.' Pinsir spoke up.

Pikachu and Rojo were still too injured to move while Ash and Lillie were surrounded by Beedrill.

Kakuna's eyes brightened. 'I've been pushed my whole life… I'm not backing down this time!' He yelled with all his might.

Pinsir stretched out his hand to pick up the immobile bug type and look him dead in the eyes.

Despite not moving, the eyes remained determined and filled with courage.

After a moment even though it felt like an eternity, Pinsir closed his eyes and looked towards the Beedrill. 'Stop! … That is enough. We've already won against the Spearow group. Go back up there and tend to our wounded.'

'But sir!' One of the Beedrill tried to say.

'Get going! And spread the order no one is to harm the Humans and their Pokémon! NOW!' That last word made all the Beedrill fly back up through the hole and the other exits.

When that was done, Pinsir put down Kukuna and turned his back towards all the last five that started this all.

'Leave now before I change my mind.' He spoke loud enough for all of them to hear. Ash and Lillie quickly went over to check on Pikachu and Rojo while Kakuna tilted his body to look at Pinsir.

'Boss?'

'You already said you quit, didn't you? I'm not your boss.' The Pinsir spoke up coldly. 'You really were weak you know? You didn't toughen out long enough for me to straighten those fools that drove you out in the first place. Don't do that in that your next group, or else I'll feel annoyed that a weakling like you came from my crew after staring me down as if I was your equal.'

The cocoon Pokémon heard all the cold and strict words, but he only felt his heart warmed from hearing all that. This was his Boss' way of saying goodbye, and he was saying to him to continue showing that loyalty and courage for his new friends.

'… Thank you, boss.' Kakuna spoke up as he was picked up by Ash.

Both Lillie and Ash paused for a second before bowing and saying their thanks to Pinsir, who just scoffed with his back turned on them.

Pinsir walked over to something and tossed it at Lillie for her to catch with her free hand: a Poké Ball.

'Get that out of my forest. And don't come back unless you can actually put up a decent fight.' The Pinsir started walking away.

Lillie and Ash looked at the Poké Ball. There was a Pokémon in it, and they had a pretty good idea who was inside it.

…

'And someonefix that dang hole in the wall!' The Boss Pinsir screamed as he pointed towards the ceiling hole he and his opponent originally made.

* * *

Ash and Lillie quickly got out of the giant olive tree and were making their way back towards Pewter City after dusting off their slightly torn map. Thankfully, they had found they were only a few miles away and would be able to make it before the night got too dark.

'Hey.'

Rojo, being carried by Ash, looked over to Pikachu who was being carried by his owner.

'Thanks for the save.'

Rojo just closed his eyes and relaxed into Ash's arm—as much as he could since Ash was carrying Kakuna in his other arm. 'You would have done the same thing too.'

Ash chuckled. "Well here's to hoping we don't get kidnapped again."

Lillie rolled her eyes at Ash's optimism, but then realized something. "This is technically my second time being kidnapped though this time it was by Pokémon and not my own mother."

" _What?!_ "

It was then Lillie recalled, she never explained to anyone that part of her adventure in detail.

* * *

[Extra Scene: Do you remember that?]

While the group was walking, Ash suddenly stopped and sniffed the air. He did this several times before smelling his Pokémon.

"Ash? What are you…" Lillie spoke up before a smell hit her nose and she followed it to Pikachu.

"What is that smell?" Ash asked very carefully.

Rojo and Pikachu blinked before recalling something. 'Oh yeah! Weedle warned us that some of the paths smelled like ordure or something.'

'Yeah, what is ordure?'

Ash and Lillie both stayed silent then put down both Pikachu, Kakuna, and Rojo to the ground.

The two Pokémon were surprised even more so when the Trainers just looked and walked up ahead.

Ash spoke out first. "We are so hitting the showers after we get our rooms."

"Agreed." Lillie flushed red since she and Ash didn't have the heart to tell them what that word meant.

'You guys really don't know?' Kakuna managed to ask. 'It's also called po—'

Needless to say, Rojo and Pikachu both realized why their entrance path was empty and why it smelled weird to them. Technically speaking, they went through an intricate sewer system.

'WE'VE BEEN WAITING ON THAT FOR TEN MINUTES STRAIGHT!?'

 **{Author Notes}**

 **I'm glad you all enjoy this story so much. Thanks so much for the support. As for some of the questions on the pokemon in this story, as of right now, Weedle/Kakuna is technically Ash's Caterpie, but with different character and storyline.**

 **As for the shipping... hahahaha... *Shrugs shoulders***

 **Anyway, see you guys later.**


	4. Ch 4: Pewter Chronicles

[Chapter 4: How not to Relax]

Lillie looked around Pewter City early in the morning. She and Pikachu were looking for a clothes store since a 'certain event' yesterday.

'Why do you humans only grow fur on your head? It seems like a dumb genetic thing to not grow fur all over yourself like some of us.' Pikachu asked while he was perched on Lillie's shoulder.

The blonde girl just laughed. "I don't know myself, Pikachu. I think Humans had more fur before, but I don't really remember why. Though, I have to say it's nice to finally relax after the past three days."

'Wait, three?' The electric mouse asked.

Lillie laughed nervously, trying to think of how to explain that strange event that happened on the first day she met Ash. It started out normally, but now that she thought of it, how did that Ultra Wormhole open out of thin air?

Her thoughts were distracted as she saw a stage where a crowd was gathering. There was a promotion for travel towards the Kalos region, a very beautiful and lush region that had a mixture of both nature and modern beauty.

However, as the promoter was speaking up about the wonderful sights the region had to offer, a pink puffball like Pokémon walked towards the center of the stage.

Lillie's eyes widened as she saw how adorable that Pokémon was and quickly picked out her Poké Dex to describe it.

The device told her that it was called a Jigglypuff and that it could inflate its stomach and that it has a voice range that exceeded 12 octaves.

Seeing the creature, the spokesman kindly let the cute creature take the stage as it looked excited to be there. It was even holding a mike of its own as if it was going to sing.

However, what the device didn't tell Lillie was that most Jigglypuff had the ability to put people to sleep as soon as it sung.

"Jiiigggllly~Puff~Jiggly…"

"Ooohhh it's sounds so adoraberrrrleee…" Lillie's eye lids slowly became heavier and heavier as her mind slowed to a sudden halt.

The normal and fairy type stopped singing as it looked around a large group of people that had now fallen asleep. In anger, it pouted but it ended up enlarging itself as it puffed air.

Then it took the top part of its mike off, revealing it to simply be an elaborate marker pen all the while glaring angrily at all the people asleep from her singing.

…

Lillie woke up from the concrete sidewalk and turned towards a window—

"AAAAHHH!?" She yelled as she noticed graffiti written all over her face as if a toddler was playing a prank on her.

It then occurred to Lillie that she was holding Pikachu before she suddenly blacked out and quickly searched for the Pokémon, only to find him a few feet away and also having a bunch of silly drawings on his face that consisted of a goatee, a black eye, and what she hoped was a cloud. Looking a bit more, she found out that everyone had their faces drawn.

'What the heck!? Lillie, what happened to your face!? Huh?! What happened to _my_ face!?' Pikachu asked as he started to wake up.

More and more people started to wake up and Lillie eventually overheard two people nearby her as she searched her bag for her towel.

"That Jigglypuff has been going around the city making everyone sleep! When will it leave!? Or why don't we shoo it out!?"

"It just starts singing when it's in front of a group. Besides, I don't think it means any ill will. Just hope it loses interest and leaves for somewhere else."

Pikachu started wiping his face after Lillie gave him the towel. However, the electric type noticed that the blonde girl was seemingly deep in thought.

'Lillie, what are you thinking?' He cautiously asked.

The Alolan looked towards Pikachu with determined eyes but the air around her was diminished because she hadn't wiped off the fake mustache on her face. "Pikachu, I want that Pokémon!"

The electric type just stared before turning his head away and whispering to himself, 'Oooh nooo, I didn't want to relax today.'

"What was that?"

'How are we supposed to find that puff ball after it disappeared?' Pikachu quickly asked.

The girl only stood up, the fire in her eyes somehow even brighter. "This looks like a job for Detective Love Line!"

'You do realize you still have a fake mustache on while doing that, right?'

* * *

"Alright! Operation: Help-Kaku-Move-Again, is a go!" Ash threw his fist in the air as he stood at the battle field behind the Pokémon Center.

Kakuna, or Kaku for short, was on the floor on the verge of tears since there was the obvious fact that he couldn't actually move and was lying on the floor on his side because there was nothing supporting him from standing.

'My existence is misery.' Kaku droned in utter, pitiable despair.

'We're obviously off to a grand start,' Rojo folded his arms. 'Wouldn't the only way to get him to move would be to evolve him again?'

"Well yeah, but how do we make him evolve again? I mean, I don't think I've ever asked Uncle Riley how Lucario evolved." The raven haired boy mused to himself before he snapped his fingers and his eyes widened. "Ahh! I think I remember somewhere that Pokémon have a higher chance of evolving after they gain more experience in battling!"

Both Ash and Rojo looked at the cocoon Pokémon that tilted his cone body and only rolled in a way that made his face look towards the ground.

'He's in no condition to battle. He's like permanently paralyzed or something.'

'Hey!' Kaku muffled a response before Rojo apologized made him face upward. 'I can totally move! See!? I can… blink rapidly at you?' The cocoon Pokémon moved his eyelids to be opened and closed consecutively.

"I don't think anyone's ever lost to someone who blinked angrily at them. Unless they can shoot lasers somehow, or are related to the Glare move in some way—which reminds me: why haven't I found a Pokémon that doesn't shoot eye beams yet? Sorry, getting off topic, so how can we do this…" Ash placed a hand on his chin. "Wait what about your old moves? Can you still use String Shot or Poison Sting?"

Kaku just waddled around a bit. 'I do, but not with this body… Honestly, I'm a bit scared of where my web might shoot out.'

That was Ash's cue to start thinking of a way to get him to evolve fast.

The heterochromia boy's eyes widened before he snapped his fingers as a sign of an idea coming. "Aha! We could do double battles!"

Rojo raised his brow when his mind started to find the implications of what a double meant for _himself specifically_. 'Ash that would mean  I would be against two Pokémon instead of one.'

"Hey you've obviously fought more Pokémon back in Iron Island."

'That's because I had you as back up!' The red Pokémon countered.

"And you'll still have me as back up! Just… I'll just be giving you orders and stuff." Ash tried to explain.

'It has come to my attention that this situation demands that at least one of us suffers either emotionally or physically.' Kaku waddled from his body, still attempting to move at least half a centimeter without rolling.

"Come on guys, it can't be that bad. We'll just challenge a trainer to a double battle and see how that goes."

Rojo folded his arms. 'That's easy for you to say. You're not the one doing the actual fighting!'

Ash raised his brow. "Okay then, what's your idea to help Kaku evolve?" He pointed towards his first partner.

Rojo opened his mouth, but then froze as he realized he didn't have any idea at all. 'One of these days, I'm going to be the one making the plans.'

"I'm actually looking forward to it. So our next plan would just be to find a trainer…" That didn't seem hard since they were near a Pokémon Center and trainers always came around this place.

Ash didn't have to look far as he soon saw a large group of people gathering around a trainer who had this Charmeleon following him around. The large group seemed to be having some kind of party around them, so he hoped he wasn't intruding.

"Hey! You there with the fire type! Can I challenge you to a Double Battle?" Leave to Ash to simply be direct about things.

"Excuse me!?" The trainer was actually wearing something very unorthodox. Or rather, he wasn't even wearing a shirt. He was half naked while wearing some giant flowing pants styled like fire while wearing sandals and having bandages wrapped around his fists like some eastern gangster.

Then he posed dramatically with his fire type, causing Ash to blink in surprise.

"Do you know who we are?!" He asked as he continued to pose dramatically with some of the crowd screeching in joy.

'I didn't know humans could learn Screech.' Kaku turned his eyes to Rojo, who was currently carrying him.

"… No?" Ash answered honestly.

The ace trainer then dramatically took out some fancy sun glasses and put it on his face along with his fire type. "I'm going to tell you something important now, so you better dig the wax out of those ears and listen! The Reputation of Team Raymon echoes far and wide—"

"Oh hey! I loved that show when I was a kid!" Ash cooed in excitement before he suddenly took off as well in a heroic pose and shouted, "When they talk about its badass leader - the man of indomitable spirit and masculinity - they're talking about…"

"Dude! That's my thing!" The trainer interrupted Ash in a very miffed manner.

"Whoops, sorry." The Aura user tried to apologize but everyone else was giving him the mean look.

"That's it! Nobody messes with Team Raymon! I accept your challenge! Go Ren! Go Lag!" The Charmeleon quickly jumped in while he threw out a Great Ball, revealing he had a Hariyama with radical face paint to be his partner.

However, before they could start, Nurse Joy told everyone to take the battle outside on one of their fields.

Later on in the battlefield, Rojo found himself frowning as the two Pokémon locked their sights towards him and Kaku. 'Ash, did I mention that I hate you?'

"Go, Ren, use Metal Claw!"

Rojo quickly dropped his friend and backed off from the swipe of the fire type. Spinning on his heel, he then flipped over the Hariyama, who was unbelievably fast for his size and tried to use Force Palm on the small red Pokémon.

After flipping over, Rojo only heard Ash's warning for half a second before quickly back flipping to avoid a stream of Ember.

'Don't worry, Rojo! I'll help you!' Kaku screamed out good naturedly as he then just wiggled his body a bit. 'It occurs to me that I really don't think things through…' He said this as he found himself rolling to face the ground again.

"Come on! Kaku! You can do it!" Ash shouted encouraging things to his new Pokémon while Rojo was avoiding the surprisingly two skilled Pokémon with a lot of effort. (There was even a scream from the red Pokémon that he was really not enjoying this plan.)

Kaku looked deep within himself and was able to finally pull off a Move!

But it was just Harden.

'Now I just feel harder!' The immobile Pokémon spoke up.

However, Ash seemed to be hit with a sudden stroke of genius.

…

He hoped.

"Kaku! Keep using Harden and Rojo, pick up Kaku!"

The red Riolu slid along the ground and right next to his supposed partner of this battle before holding him up right between him and Ren, the Charmeleon who was using Metal Claw. The steel attack made contact with Kaku's solidified body and repelled the fire type back a bit, prompting Rojo to circle back and unleash a Force Palm on the flinching Pokémon's stomach.

The fire type found himself clinging to the wall after he was blown from the impact of the attack.

After the move, the bug and poison type's eyes widened in utter astonishment.

'D-Did you just use me as a _shield_!?' Kaku shouted in shock while he felt his entire being ringing from the impact.

'Sorry! It was either you or me.' Rojo spoke as he circled around his partner again and quickly lifted him up to block a Force Palm from the Hariyama. The blow sent both of them sliding back, but besides some shaking form both of them, they looked fine.

"Using your own comrade to take up hits! How despicable!" The trainer, who Ash assumed to be Raymond pointed to him.

However, the aura user tilted his head in confusion. "It is?" Wait… maybe it was….

'I do not like being used like this!' Kaku shouted out.

'Would you feel bad if I said I actually do like using you like a shield?' Rojo asked his teammate. He was kind of getting used to having an impromptu shield.

'Yes!?'

"Yes, it is!" The sun glasses trainer answered to Ash and stomped his foot. "We will show the true power of team work! Guys… COMBINE!"

'Combine?' Rojo and Kaku asked in confusion.

"Combine!" The crowd called out.

Ash raised his brow. "Well the show was all about the impossible…"

The Charmeleon and the Hariyama ran towards each other. The fire type jumped up high dramatically… then landed on the head of the Hariyama who was helping him up.

Ash and his Pokémon were underwhelmed.

Their opponents tried to pose in that state. "Behold the righteous bond between men—"

It was then Kaku came out of nowhere at high speed and knocked Ren the Charmeleon off Hariyama, much like professional baseball player throwing his fastest pitch.

Ash looked over to Rojo in shock. "Did you just throw Kaku?"

'I hate to admit it, but he makes a great blunt weapon.'

On the other side of the battlefield, Kaku was screaming, 'Couldn't you find a better way for me to help!?'

"Impossible! You defeated our combination!" Raymond dramatically pointed in shock.

However, Ash pointed up a finger as he tried to be polite. "I respect your dedication to your favorite show, but there are some aspects of it you shouldn't bring to reality."

Suddenly, Ash thought he heard a sound of glass shattering around him, but saw nothing broken.

Raymond's voice sounded more demure as he asked, "W-What did you say?"

The Aura user rubbed the back of his head and said, "When I was a kid, I used to pretend like my favorite cartoons too, but my Uncle told me that it's only important to take their lessons, not their powers since you'll look like a fool to others."

While Ash was doing his best to be delicate and mature, Raymond and the crowd of dressed up people fell to their knees as if they were hit by something super effective.

'Wow Ash, you did more damage to all of them than me and Kaku did. And _we're_ the ones battling right now.' The red Pokémon stated.

The aura user raised his brow. "I don't know what I even did. I was just trying to help them."

Out of the crowd of costume users, a boy wearing a bright orange ninja jumpsuit came out. "Hold, foolish child! You can't just mock our ninja way! Because we…"

Ash tuned him out as he finally started to realize that the crowd around him was also wearing a large variety of very peculiar clothes. He then tilted his head upward towards the main room where he meet all these people, and noticed the banner, 'Anime Convention' through a window.

"Why do I feel as if I did something I wasn't supposed to do?" Ash asked to himself before the ninja boy challenged him to a double battle.

An Accelagor and Ninjask both came into the battlefield and then also dramatically posed. "If you want your beliefs to pass, you must defeat all of us in double battle!" The ninja dude pointed dramatically as he motioned to all the costumed teens behind him holding out their own Poké Balls.

'I think I'm fine with not evolving anymore…' Kaku meekly spoke up.

"I… don't think they're going to let us leave any time soon." Ash sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "I wonder how Lillie is doing?"

* * *

The only thing Pikachu understood about detectives was that one time he was watching a television commercial as Professor Oak tried to tame him after recently being caught. The detective was rather chubby, had a lot of facial hair, and he had a partner that was very skinny and tall.

Lillie was not a chubby, hairy man or a skinny, tall one. How could she be a detective?

"Okay!" Lillie spoke up with a smile as she began thinking hard while sitting on a bench. "That Jigglypuff seems to like singing. And from what I asked about that Pokémon from people who lived in the city, she's been appearing a lot on large gathering crowds. With that in mind, I think she wants to be some kind of Pokémon Star which is why she's always trying to find crowded areas to sing to!"

Pikachu blinked. 'I can see what you did there, but was all that talking?'

"It's called deduction! It's the inference of particular instances by reference to a general law or principle!"

'Lillie, I asked you so I could be less confused, not more.'

The Alolan girl pouted, but still tried to put it simply. "Basically, it's kind of like educated guess work by looking at facts and making a good guess in how they all connect."

'Okay, so how does this help?'

Lillie took out a note pad and a pen. "I asked the organizer if there was a way to figure out if there were other events in the city. He said I had to look online, but he did tell me that in the Pewter City Mall, they're doing a fundraising event that is filled with a lot of people! We can find her there and capture her so I can have my first caught Pokémon!"

'What about that Fearow?' Pikachu asked.

"We're all a little scared to let that Pokémon out if it's strong as that Pinsir…" Lillie mentioned as she looked at the Poké Ball and placed it back into the bag. "But you get the point! I'm going to capture it!"

'But won't we fall asleep when it starts singing again?'

Lillie paused and started to think. "You're right. Hmm… What would Ash do in this situation?"

Pikachu perked up after hearing Ash's name. From all the stories, his plans are rather unconventional - in the absolute simplest terms. 'Don't you have less… _reckless_ people to be inspired from?'

"Yes, but I'm not sure I can do what they do." Huh, she supposed she choose Ash mostly because he seemed more down to earth than her friends did back in Alola.

Lillie's friends were all amazing and extraordinary people, to her. That isn't to say, Ash wasn't as well, but she supposed she could relate to him a little more because she saw a bit of herself in him with how Ultra Wormholes changed his life.

"But anyway, let's get to the Pewter City Mall! I'll explain my idea on the way there!"

Pewter City Mall was much like most major malls. It was very large and spanned a wide area that had a vast amount of shops that sold various equipments.

But like Lillie was told, there was a fund raising event for a children's hospital in the form of bands playing on top of a stage in the center of the mall for everyone to hear.

In her head, Lillie was looking around observantly, paying attention to anything that could hint to the arrival of her target.

In reality, she was just waiting outside a café ordering some cookies while watching the thing from afar. She was also drinking some milk, while darting her eyes around expecting something to come up.

Pikachu was enjoying his ketchup packs until he realized how silly the girl was making herself look. 'Are we sure she's coming here?'

"I thought she would be here by now." The Alolan girl still saw no sign of her prey anywhere around the stage and the café had a great vantage point because it was in the floor above.

However, some gasps from the crowd made the girl and electric type look back towards the stage itself and somehow the pink Pokémon the two were hunting for was already there.

'How'd she get there so fast!?' Pikachu got up on his four paws as Lilly quickly reached for a bag she bought in the mall.

However, it wasn't fast enough as the pink Pokémon started singing towards the main mike for the entire mall to hear.

A few seconds in, and everyone was starting to fall asleep. Lillie, with the last of her will, took out a special device she prepared and set it up before the sleepiness overcame her.

…

…

…

RING! RING! RING!

Stopping from writing a black eye on one of the band members, Jigglypuff looked up towards the second floor café where she heard a faint sound of a bell. The pink Pokémon started floating upward towards the sound before noticing a blonde female and a Pikachu rubbing their ears as the human pushed away the alarm clock.

'Why was that your plan!?' He did not appreciate hearing the sound of the alarm so close to his ears.

"I couldn't get the ear muffs fast enough!" Lillie yelled back.

It was then the two noticed that they were being watched and they both slowly turned their heads towards Jigglypuff who was eyeing them both weirdly.

Then, Lillie pointed first towards the normal and fairy type. "Pikachu, thundershock!"

The electric type was somewhat startled before charging an attack and unleashing it on the flying puff ball. However, Jigglypuff jumped to the rail and the bolt of electricity flew downward towards the stage where it blew up equipment on the stage.

Lillie dropped her jaw at the accidental destruction she and her Pokémon caused, but snapped out of it when the Jigglypuff angrily unleashed and Echoed Voice at the two, forcing them to run away and avoid the attack. However, while the attacked missed the intended targets, it did shatter the glass of the café behind them.

The girl from Alola paled as she saw the two Pokémon battling around the upper floors where they started to break more and more things while people were slowly starting to wake up. "I did not think this all the way through when I called that attack."

If that wasn't bad enough, when Pikachu attacked the first time and hit the stage, the smoke from the machines went to the smoke detectors.

This caused the alarms to ring around the entire mall and activate the sprinklers.

All of the sprinklers.

"Oh I _really_ didn't think this through. How does Ash make it look easy?" Lillie started covering herself with her hands.

She suddenly stopped her thoughts when she realized Pikachu was running past her, yelling at her to run before she turned back and saw the rather miffed Jigglypuff about to unleash another attack.

The two quickly turned a corner where a cabbage cart was hit with the Jigglypuff's attack.

"Muh… muh cabbages…" The sleeping vendor in the floor managed to mumble as his cabbage cart was destroyed.

Lillie paled as the man slowly started to wake up from the sprinkler and alarm bell. Then she looked over to see a drenched Jigglypuff looking angrily in their direction.

Pikachu's cheeks sparked to attack back—

However, Lillie had just realized one rather important fact: there was _water_ everywhere now and Pikachu was about to unleash an _electrical_ attack.

"Pikachu, sto—"

A lot of people that were just waking up suddenly found a much less pleasant way of falling back to sleep.

Pikachu started to sweat drop after seeing Lillie back on the ground, but felt someone come over him and turned around.

The Jigglypuff looked very angry despite looking injured from the electrical attack—she was probably more hurt than she realized but was pushing through her own anger and adrenaline. Then she promptly used Double Slap on the Pikachu.

Though no one told the Jigglypuff there was actually a limit on the Double Slap move. She ended up slapping the Pikachu for a very, very long time for 'Ruining her make-up' she probably said in between the slaps.

Pikachu had fainted long before the pink puff ball was finished and stormed out of the ruined mall, leaving both Lillie and Pikachu out cold with the rest of the ungrateful people who wouldn't listen to her song.

* * *

That was a rather… dumb day. Lillie imagined in her mind as she started to walk back towards the Pokémon Center.

After waking up again for like the third time that day, Lillie had found out that the Jigglypuff not only escaped, she may have caused property damage trying to catch the creature.

So after apologizing to the authorities and owners, Lillie and Pikachu sluggishly made their way back to the Pokémon Center—only to find a large line of strangely dressed people in front of Nurse Joy's desk, waiting for their Pokémon to be healed.

'Uhhh! Why!?' Pikachu groaned as he still felt his body ache from the beating the Jigglypuff gave him.

Lillie sighed before noticing in the main lobby Ash, Rojo, and Kakuna were sitting in a couch on the far away corner. What surprised her was that Rojo was laying down on the floor, gasping for breath, Kakuna looked unconscious, and Ash was holding an Ice pack over one of his eyes.

"Ash?" Lillie called out to her travel companion, making the boy remove the icepack for a moment to reveal he had a black eye. "Oh! W-What happened?!"

Surprisingly, Rojo was the one to groan in pain in response to that. 'No, no more please! Too many… catch phrases!' He then complained about a dumb ninja being a pirate king of some kind.

'What the heck happened to you?' Pikachu asked the red Pokémon.

Ash then tried to explain his whole thought process of trying to help Kaku evolve so he could move again. One thing led to another and he ended up having around thirty straight double battles in a row with some 'passionate' people. What was worse was that they might have even kept going until one of their opponent's Hitmonchan fired a Vacuum Wave and accidentally hit Ash in the face because someone's Rattata made him trip and distracted the Aura user in training.

"Oh, you nicknamed him?" Lillie looked to the unconscious Pokémon. "But why is he fainted?"

'I sorta used him as both a shield and a weapon. He might have been knocked out cold around our tenth fight, but by then they were all cheating and ganging up on me, so I really didn't care.' Rojo gasped.

'Did you say shield?' Pikachu focused his eyes on the bug type and started to imagine the Pokémon taking hits for him. 'How effective was it?'

'Surprisingly very.' Rojo admitted.

"Point is," Ash said. "That stray attack finally got them to stop and leave us alone, and now we're just waiting for them to use Nurse Joy's healing machine." It was then he noticed how bad Lillie and Pikachu looked. "So uhh how was your day?"

Lillie sighed before sitting next to him. Pikachu just gave up and also fell to the floor near Rojo and Kaku. It was the girl's turn to tell how miserable her day turned out.

"I suck at capturing Pokémon." Lillie whined.

"Well, I sucked at trying to evolve mine." Ash sighed before giving a weak laugh. "Guess we both sucked today?"

Lillie nodded. "Yeah… I don't know why my journey was like this. I heard from my friends that they had a much easier, and cleaner, time catching their first Pokémon. I mean, I know by now my journey is going to be different, but I wasn't expecting it to be this much."

Ash seemed surprised. "Well, I know you probably look up to your friends, but comparing them to yourself is a bit unfair. They are who they are and you're you. If it helps, I think you're really nice and determined. And hey, look at Pikachu! He likes you!"

'I'll like her more when my entire body isn't in aching pain that a potion can't fully heal.' Pikachu groaned.

Rojo weakly laughed at his friend. 'You got double slapped so hard…'

'At least I didn't use my own friend as a shield.' Pikachu snapped back.

'You're just jealous you didn't have someone to take all those hits for you.'

Pikachu huffed and turned away his head, muttering that he was indeed jealous.

Lillie and Ash chuckled at their Pokémon's back and forth. She was feeling a little better to know she wasn't the only one who had a bad day. It felt nice to have someone to empathize with.

She looked back at the large crowd of weirdly dressed people…

"Wait."

Ash looked at Lilly. "What?"

"I just remembered that Jigglypuff likes to be around large crowds…"

As if on cue, the entire crowd gasped and parted as a Jigglypuff jumped on to Nurse Joy's counter for the whole Lobby to see.

"Oh no..." Lillie and Ash gasped in horror.

'Dibs on the shield!' Pikachu frantically got back up and used the still unconscious Kaku as the shield he was meant to be.

'Hey no! He's my shield!' Rojo slowly got back up.

Then Jigglypuff started singing.

As her voice hit all of their ears, many people slowly started to fall back to sleep.

"Ooohhh this actually sounds kind of nice…" Ash droned off as he fell back into his seat.

"I knew I shouldn't have left… the alarm clock back there…" Lillie yawned and also fell back into the couch.

After a bit, Jigglypuff stopped singing and then angrily noticed that a majority of people were sleeping. Miffed once more, she took out her marker—only to realize the water had seeped in and made the marker wet and unable to draw.

Dissatisfied, she stormed out of the Pokémon Center in search of another marker.

As she floated out, she didn't notice in the corner of the room that there was Ash and Lillie sleeping on each other on the couch with bother their heads tilted towards each other.

And on the floor, Rojo and Pikachu were out cold sleeping on Kakuna.

…

'Uhhh what happened?' Kaku groaned as he finally came back to consciousness. 'Huh? Rojo? Pikachu? Why are you guys one me? Hey! I-I can't move—more than I already can't! Ash! Lillie!? Please help!?' He yelled out only for no one to hear him with how deep they were all sleeping and how tired they all were.

'Help!? Anyone!?' The bug and poison type cried out that no one heard. It also seemed like he was going to be stuck there for quite a while.

…

…

…

'I'm never going to evolve, am I?'

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Don't be like that Kaku, according to my notes, you evolve in… oh. Uhhh, keep up the good work and you'll evolve soon! *Nervous Laugther.***

 **Hey! Look! Jigglypuff from the series is back! I sort of toyed with the idea of this being an actual Pokémon of Lillie, but I'm on the fence about it. There are some fun but also annoying things I would have to go through if I do decide this. For now though, she will appear some parts of the journey like she does in the Anime.**

 **The point of this chapter was to somehow slow things down and have our two main characters enjoy their day off in their own way... I think... i Sorta did that... maybe... hard to tell...**

 **Now, I thought about it, and you guys convinced me. (even though I did decide this when I first began the story) This will be an Ash X Lillie fic. There are a few of these, (and honestly, this isn't even my OTP) but none the less, I like shipping and I thought these two would be a cute couple.**

 **Thank you for reading!**

* * *

{Extra: You're going to need insurance.}

Lusamine was enjoying her cup of tea. "This is very lovely tea, Professor Oak. How did you make it?"

"It was actually from my wife. She always knew how to make some amazing tea." He placed the pot down and handed Lusamine some mail. "By the way, here's some mail one of your attendants gave me."

"Oh?" The President of the Aether Foundation was surprised to find the mail she had opened up were just bills. "W-What? Car repairs? Property damage?! Damage for ruining musical equipment!?"

Professor Oak froze before he sipped his tea. "Oh no. It appears Ash has his father's clumsy habit after all."

"What habit?"

"Things mysteriously breaking either by his hand directly or just being near something. Phoenix and Delia had a very lively wedding with the church almost collapsing on us." The professor laughed as he recalled the moment. He then looked seriously at her. "You should probably increase your insurance policy."

However, neither of them knew that Lillie was the cause of the mishap with the mall.


	5. Ch 5: Top Percentage Companion

"This is it, Rattata! We're finally going to beat the Pewter City Gym!" A young boy wearing a blue cap, shorts, and an orange and yellow T-shirt declared proudly as he pointed to the rock type gym.

The purple normal type agreed with him as they both ran into the building. Shouting at the top of his lungs the young boy screamed, "My Rattata is the top percentage of Rat—"

[Later]

"Dang it! I lost again!" To further emphasize his grief, the young boy stomped on the ground and almost tripped because he didn't see a rock underneath his foot.

After regaining his balance, the trainer looked to his recently healed Rattata in front of the Pokémon Center. "There's gotta be a different way to battle him. There's no grass or water Pokémon I can catch for miles, so what else can I do?"

The youngster thought about this. Going in alone has gotten him beaten more times than once, so there had to be some way he could get stronger. It was then he was struck by inspiration and found it in the most unlikely of sources:

Kung-fu movies.

Most of them that involved kids always found some heavily experienced teacher to show them the mystic arts of butt kicking. So all he had to do was find someone willing to teach him his mystic ways. Granted one must realize he was ten years old and somehow tied fighting types to it to the logic of it all, but the notion still stuck in his mind.

Stricken with grief at the thought of never finding such an impossible thing, the young boy fell to his knees and punched the ground yet somehow missed another stone that he threw his hand on because his eyes were closed.

The young boy cradled his fist after foolishly punching a rock on the ground. The he shouted out loud, "Who keeps leaving all these rocks on the sidewalk!?"

It was strange that a few blocks down, a man named Flint was counting his collection of newly picked up rocks in his wheel barrel. "Huh, I must have accidentally dropped a few along the way back to the gym. I want to go back, but Brock will definitely be angry at me again…"

Back with the young boy; he had given up and threw his hands in the air, which may have been an attempt to avoid another rock. "And where am I supposed to find some kind of Kung-fu Expert!?"

"What is that guy!? Is he like some kind of Kung-Fu expert!?"

The young trainer snapped his head back up like a whip before rushing towards the sound of the voice coming from behind the Pokémon Center.

Poking his head out from the corner, the trainer and his partner noticed a large group of people surrounding a teen that was not much older than him. However, what caught his attention, besides the two different colored eyes he had, was that the trainer had a red Pokémon he had never seen before and that Pokémon was moving gracefully as it fought against other Pokémon.

It was even one versus tw—wait. The red Pokémon is using that Kakuna as a blunt weapon. … But he was using it so skillfully like he had been doing it all his life!

"Rattata, we've got to meet him!" The young boy tightened his cap to prepare himself for the task ahead.

However, the two struggled quite a bit despite how simple it sounded. This was mostly due to the fact that the battle was surrounded by older people wearing strange costumes in the middle of the day and trying to push through this crowd was made harder due to the fact he wasn't entirely sure what materials the costume people were wearing.

The cap wearing kid and his partner pushed through with all their might… but ended up tripping over. Unfortunately for the Rattata, he squeezed a little too tightly and found himself losing balance as he also entered into the battle field.

The battlers stopped for one second to look at the Rattata until one random strange cried out, "Hey! He's right! We don't actually have to fight him one on one! Let's all gang up on him!"

The Riolu and his trainer's eyes widened. "I'm sorry. What?" They both said in sync. The Kakuna might have said something if he wasn't unconscious but still somehow using Harden.

Then everyone threw in their remaining Pokémon into the ring.

Rattata noticed the Riolu facepalm before attacks all started to fly towards him and the Riolu.

'You jerk! This is all your fault!' The Riolu said to the running Rattata.

'I wasn't trying to do this, I swear! I was just trying to see your battle!' They both shut up when blasts from completely different Pokémon started to rain on them.

It was then that the Rattata had a thought. 'Wait, they're aiming for you, not me!'

'Leave me alone, and I will personally hunt you down!' The Riolu's aura turned deadly towards the purple rat.

'W-What?! S-Sorry! I-I can't hear you over trainers shouting their attacks at us!' The Rattata was sweating a lot and doing his very best to pretend the hair on his fur wasn't standing on end. He quickly scampered away from the Riolu, but was so focused on running his fastest that he didn't see the Hitmonchan's leg as he was priming up a Vacuum Wave.

This caused the fighting type to miss his mark and the attack went flying towards the Riolu's trainer instead. The surprise caused the trainer to fall over, but as soon as he did, everyone froze.

Riolu was gasping for breath. 'Oh when I get hit, no one bats an eye, but when he gets touched— _ **then**_ you stop!?' Unfortunately, that last complaint used the last of the red Pokémon's strength and he fell face-first to the ground.

Everyone realized that they may have gone too far after all and left the kid alone.

The trainer and his Rattata finally pushed their way through the crowds and noticed the trainer moving from the ground.

The trainer slowly got back up while rubbing the eye where his brown pupil was. "Oww. I was not paying attention, but at least they're all gone now." He then looked over to the boy and his Rattata. "Oh hey. … You look normal."

"… Teach me the ways of Martial Arts, Master!" Whatever normal vibe the young trainer gave immediately flew out of the window as he tried to prostrate himself before the Riolu's trainer.

However, there was another stray rock beneath him from a previous Rock Throw attack and he made his knee fall into it.

Tearing up and cradling his knee, the boy rolled on the floor a bit. He kinda of looked pathetic even though he wasn't trying to.

"Okay. So… I'm… going to get an ice pack for my throbbing eye… you want some first kit aid stuff to?" The trainer still offered.

"Yes please…" The young boy squeaked through the pain.

* * *

[Later]

Why was he waking up from the cold, dirty floor? The last thing he remembered after getting his knee patched up was that he was going to meet with his new master. His memory became really fuzzy as he faintly recalled singing before he lost consciousness.

The young boy picked himself up and looked out the window. It was already night even though the last thing he remembered when looking up the sky was the setting sun in the orange sky.

What was strange was that he wasn't the only one sleeping on the floor as he noticed a lot of people in costumes lying on the floor and snoring.

"What happened here?" He scratched his head before deciding to find that older trainer. I mean, even with that sad and weird display, he didn't actually say no to him. Maybe there was a chance for him to get stronger after all.

He spotted his new potential Kung-fu teacher—who was sleeping with a really pretty girl with their heads tilted towards each other.

Never in that young boy's life had he been so very, very determined until that moment. The young boy knew this slightly older teen was destined to be his teacher! He would not only show him the ways of actually winning a battle, but the secret key in how to also get a hot girlfriend like his!

"Ka! Ku! Kakuna!"

The young boy looked down to see the red Riolu and Pikachu sleeping on top of a teary-eyed Kakuna. The bug and poison cocoon seemed to be trying to say something but the youngster keep staring without any idea what to do next.

… But they both looked really tired and asleep though… and they both looked a little cold...

The Kakuna kept making sounds he wasn't fully aware of, but the youngster ended up leaving and coming back with a blanket for the two. He even had an extra blanket for their Pokémon. Though, he wondered why the Kakuna just kept blinking at him rapidly when he covered the Pokémon up in a blanket and put some pillows near them.

The poor Pokémon must have been having trouble trying to sleep. He hoped the blanket would help.

Well those two were easy, but then the young boy looked at everyone else scattered on the ground sleeping.

"… I'm going to regret this…"

He took out his Poké Ball and called out his Rattata for help.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

 _Something… smells like… the beach…_

Ash stirred in his sleep as the smell went into his nose.

 _Something feels… warm… and soft…_

Lillie found herself moving closer towards the warmth since her body was still feeling a little cold from the sprinklers at the mall.

'Sooo are we just going to leave them like this?'

'They look tired so maybe?'

'… I am kind of hungry though.'

'Well that's a completely different thing all together—wake up!'

The two trainers opened up their eyes to notice that the sun was shining on them from the window. The second thing they noticed was that they were both close to each other. The third thing they noticed was how fast they both slid away from each other.

"S-Sorry!" "I am so sorry!" The two stammered with flushed cheeks.

'Good morning guys!' Rojo called out to them from below.

'What's with you two?' Pikachu looked on with confusion. 'Don't you two remember falling asleep on each other?'

They both recalled that Jigglypuff had put them all to sleep late in the afternoon, but now it was morning? Were they both that out of it?

"Err right! Right!" Lillie picked up the blanket. "We-Well in that case we better get ready! We are supposed to leave for the next city today after all!" It was then her attention was then focused on the blanket she was holding. "Wait, did you two put this on us?"

'Kaku knows, but the poor guy looks sleep deprived for some reason.' Rojo pointed over to the Kakuna on the floor with dry eyes.

'I gazed upon the void and realized my insignificance in the grand cosmos…' One could note that Kaku did not look to be in the best of mental states when he dropped back to his poetic speech. 'Even with my call for assistance, I was shrouded in misery and pathetic-ness.' The fact you could see the popping veins in his black eyes did not look like a good sign of physical health as well.

"Kaku, are you alright?" Ash picked up his new Pokémon. It kind of spoke volumes that one of his Pokémon had temper issues while another was slowly losing his sanity. And he wasn't even doing this on purpose!

'Ah! Praise be to you, oh child named after cinders, for you bring hope back into my bleak world!'

"You know Ash, even with this amazing new ability to talk to Pokémon I am amazed that I sometimes still can't understand them." Lillie folded up the blanket.

"I also have that problem. But I really need to get you guys healed up." Ash looked towards Nurse Joy who was still back in the counter looking rather groggy instead of her usual calm demeanor.

'Let me come too, my nightmares just so happened to be that horrible creature slapping me again.' Pikachu groaned as he rubbed his cheeks. 'Though I am thankful there's no graffiti on me this time.'

While the two were finally getting their Pokémon healed up, a newcomer came down from the free bed rooms of the Pokémon Center by rubbing his back with his purple Pokémon.

"Finally! Getting those people into those bedrooms was so much hard work! I'm not even sure I even put them in the right room!" He yawned before looking over towards Nurse Joy where he saw someone familiar.

His eyes snapped open as he made a bee line for the teen with two different colored eyes.

Ash and Lillie did not expect a kid with a cap to run up to them and suddenly prostrate himself in front of them, but here they were, in that exact situation.

"Master! Teach me the ways of Kung-fu!"

Lillie had this look of bewilderment towards Ash while the boy seemed to recognize this familiar scenario, but couldn't quite recall for a few seconds. "Oh hey! You're that guy from yesterday!" He snapped his fingers as a form of victory for recognizing him.

"Yes! My name is Joey! Please take me as your pupil!" He shouted passionately while his head was still down.

The young Aura user and the Alolan girl looked at each other with confusion.

"Uuhh what do you mean by pupil?" The heterochromia boy scratched the back of his head as he said this.

Joey raised his head with fire in his eyes. "I want you to teach me and my Rattata how to fight like you and your Pokémon did against all those trainers!"

Oh, so that's what he wanted. That did make some sense since Ash had a lot more experience with Pokémon because of him living in an island full of them with little human interaction.

"Also!" He took in a deep breath before speaking his next sentence very quickly, "I want to know how to get a hot girlfriend like yours!"

As soon as he spoke this, Joey noticed that the room got noticeably hotter for some reason. At least he assumed that; it was really hard to tell with both his future master and his girlfriend looking like all the blood was rushing up to their faces.

" **She/He is not my girl/boyfriend!** " They both yelled at the same time.

"What? But you two were sleeping on each—"

"T-T-That was an accident! It was all the fault of a Jigglypuff!" Ash was exerting a lot of energy into explaining more than he ever did in his life.

"Y-Yeah!" Lillie concurred with him.

"But go back to the master thing about trainers! Why do you want _me_ to train you?" Slowly but surely, Ash was getting better at changing the subject.

Joey motioned to his Rattata who was walking up from behind him. "My Rattata and I need to get stronger to beat the gym! And we saw how you and your Pokémon battled, so please teach us how to fight like you!"

Ash thought about it. "Well I was trained by my Uncle, but I'm not so sure about training others myself." Though, he and Rojo immediately had flashbacks of being stranded in the middle of an angry clan of the Aggron Family and shook their heads.

"Please! I'll do anything!" Joey bowed his hand again.

The Aura user thought about it a little longer. On one hand, his skill in battle came over time and he wasn't entirely sure how to teach it. On the other hand, he wasn't one to ignore someone in need.

"Lillie, do you mind if we stay here just a little longer?" The heterochromia boy asked.

"No, actually… this would be a good chance to learn more about your Aura…"

The youngster lifted his head. "Huh? Aura?"

* * *

Joey's Rattata was sweating bullets as he stood right in front of Rojo again.

"Rojo, leave him alone." Ash walked up to the Pokémon with Joey as they walked back into the battlefield. Lillie, Kaku, and Pikachu were on a nearby bench watching the others.

'I've got my eyes on you…' The red Pokémon threatened.

'I-I thought your kind was supposed to be serene and zen-like warriors?'

Wow, Rattata was not expecting a fighting type to have such _sharp_ looking fangs when he snarled in response to that.

"Okay!" Ash clapped his hands, bringing all attention to him. "So we're here to help you win a Gym battle right? What type is it?"

"It's a rock type."

Ash's response was a huge smile. "When it comes to ground, rock, and steel types, I'm certain I know a thing or two." He fished for something in his pockets and showed it to Joey.

The young boy's eyes brightened when he saw the small, circular symbol of three pickaxes that were artfully forming around a rock. "You have a badge!?"

"Yeah, it's called the Mine Badge that the gym leader Byron gave me back in Sinnoh. It's currently my one and only badge."

"I didn't know you took on a gym challenge, Ash." Lillie looked at the gleaming badge.

His response was rather simple. "Actually it was more like the Gymleader, Mr. Byron, was visiting Iron Island at the time, but that's a different story all together," The young teen placed the badge back into his pocket before getting back on track. "Rock Pokémon are known to be very robust, and if it wasn't for their many weaknesses, they would be some of the most defensive types along with Steel while having some great offensive capabilities."

'Just don't ask him where West and East are, he still has problems switching the two with North and South.' Rojo whispered to Rattata.

"I heard that Rojo!" Ash snapped to his best friend before looking back at Joey. "So, seeing that you only have a Rattata—"

"He's top percentage! One of the Best Rattata's in the world!"

Rojo looked to the purple Pokémon beside him.

'Don't stare at me please, I get shy!' The normal type pushed a paw over his face to try and hide himself.

Ash coughed. "U-Uhh w-well we could probably help teach your Pokémon Iron Tail since Rojo knows Bullet Punch."

To make his point, Rojo lifted his right paw and clenched it in a fist. As he did, it started glowing with a peculiar sheen and he slowly brought it towards Rattata and told him to feel it. The normal type did so and was surprised to find out how the fist felt like actual steel.

'How do you do that?'

'For approximately five plus years, I've been punching some of the toughest steel types found in the Sinnoh Region.'

Rattata jaw dropped.

Rojo looked to him. 'It's not as hardcore as it sounds. First you need a good feel of how Steel energy works before you can apply it so, feel my fist… man I never thought I would say that.'

Lillie over heard this then looked to Pikachu. "Hey, can't you learn a steel type move like Iron Tail as well?"

'Can I?'

"Well yeah! Maybe you can learn it too, Volt!"

That last word caught his attention. 'Wha?'

Lillie started to stammer. "Err umm yeah. I noticed Ash was always giving his Pokémon nicknames and then I realized you didn't have one as well. Sorry, do you not like it? What do you think about Volt?"

'Oh uhh it's fine I guess, but personally I think it could be better.'

While Rojo was trying to teach Rattata how to use steel type moves and Lillie and Pikachu were discussing his new nickname, Ash was talking to Joey about another aspect of battling.

"So Joey, what's your strategy?"

Ash was not expecting the young boy to stare at him like a Stanler in headlights. "Huh?"

"I mean, what type of trainer is this gym leader guy? How does he use his Pokémon? When I battled Mr. Byron, his Pokémon were very bulky and could take on a lot of hits. I only won because I was able to use their own weight against them in the island."

"You used their own weight against them? How did you do that?"

"Well for one it wasn't in a gym and we battled on a cliff… and there was water involved—Rojo was right there are a lot of explosions when water is involved with my plans." The Aura user muttered to himself.

Joey still continued to stare at him.

"Umm, what did you do when you last went into the gym?"

"I called out Tackle a lot against his Onix." It was strange how Joey didn't seem to understand how much of a bad idea that was.

Ash blinked twice. "I-uh-well… hmm… this might take a bit…" He rubbed the back of his head while saying this.

It was then a cry made everyone look over to Rojo and Joey's Rattata. The purple normal type's tail was glowing.

"Yes! Way to go Rattata!" The youngster in shorts cheered.

'Wohoo! I'm doing it! I'm doing—' It was then the sudden weight of his tail made the limb drop on top of him and then quickly power down. 'Ow.'

'I probably should have warned you that converting any body part with steel energy does increase its weight and volume.' Rojo mused.

"Good job, Rattata! We might be able to master that move in a few days!"

Both Ash and Lillie stared at the young boy.

"What?"

"Joey, we need to get to Cerulean City as soon as possible. I don't think we can wait a few more days than we need to here." Ash told him very calmly.

"You guys have to leave?"

Lillie responded, "I'm sorry, but we are in a hurry. It's a long story but it's to help my mom."

Joey paused for a second. This was his best chance of finally getting a badge, but he still needed to get stronger. "Where are you two heading exactly?"

They told him they were going to visit a man in Cerulean City.

"Oh! Cerulean City also has a gym! I'm going with you two!" He declared proudly.

"W-Wha?" Lillie gaped.

"I need to be a better trainer! And you guys can help me with that! So, I'll just come along with you guys on the way!" The air around him gave the impression that he had not fully thought things through. However, Joey was not giving up in helping his Pokémon getting stronger.

Ash looked at Lillie since it was her word.

The blonde girl blinked. She wondered what would happen if Joey would come along with them. She didn't see too many things wrong with it.

"Do you really want Ash to teach you that much?" She was really curious about the young boy's instance.

Joey seemed like that question caught him by surprise. however, he inhaled deeply before answering. "I promised myself and my friend that we would get stronger. Please let me come along with you!" There was a strong passion in his eyes that Lillie only saw from her friends back in Alola.

"I-I guess you could come along?" She was somewhat caught off guard by how serious the boy was.

"Whooohooo!" Joey cheered in joy as if that moment of determination didn't appear a second ago. "This is the best day ever!"

Ash found himself nervously laughing at Joey's upbeat behavior, but it soon turned into genuine laughter.

Lillie smiled before noticing something. Joey reminded her of Hau…

Hau…

She looked up to the sky and wondered how were her friends doing back in Alola?

* * *

…

Nimble and near silent footsteps threaded across the rocky terrain; despite how silent she was, her pursuer was hot on her trail.

"You are so not getting away that easily!" The pursuer threw a sphere into the air before a flash of light brought out a rather low four legged creature. The pursuer pointed towards the fast target. "Ivy, Razor Leaf!"

The leaves shot were in speeds that could match bullets but even so, the target avoided all of them by hiding among the large rocks surrounding them.

"Shoot!" She snapped her fingers as she lost her target.

"Ivy…"

"Ahh don't feel bad about it, Ivy. You did well." She bent down to pet her partner. "Though, what's an Absol doing all the way here in Kanto?"

She had heard rumors that these rare Pokémon only showed up when a potential disaster was soon to follow. They were mostly native to the Hoenn region, so to see one so far from their usual area was disconcerting especially when these Pokémon were believed to be signals of bad omens.

But those were just rumors… right?

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Sorry for a slightly shorter chapter, I've been busy. Also, a little more details into how Ash specifically had his match stopped.**

 **Now, I know this story is weird, but that is because I don't want people to guess where the story goes. (Meet the infamous meme: Youngster Joey! He's actually going to be a main character because I have plans for him.)**

 **The last thing I wanted for this story was to be predictable. I do love and respect the usual badge collecting stories, but you kind of know where they are going. This story is going to have some aspects of the usual linear story telling, but at the same time, I really hope I can make a journey that doesn't need it.**

 **Hopefully I can make unpredictable, but at the same time enjoyable journey for these guys. (Plus, I've still got a few more ideas to come.)**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	6. Ch 6: Down The Ultra Wormhole

'No, no, no! You keep overdoing it that's why your tail is becoming heavy and hard to move! You have to keep the energy into your skin, not your muscles.' Rojo instructed the Rattata that was currently lying down on the grass near by the river they set camp in.

Pikachu placed some energy into his tail and swung at a tree nearby their camp. Instead of the expected result, the electric mouse just felt pain in his tail with the tree looking untouched.

'And that is the opposite case of not putting enough energy into your limb, it may feel like it's hardening, but it's not.' The fighting type pointed to the tree and punched it, leaving a small fist shaped dent into it.

Rattata looked over to the Kakuna that was lying down beside him. 'Is this kind of like using the move Harden? How does that feel like?'

'Isolation from all hope in the world.' Kaku's pupils somehow shrunk as he seemed to recall something traumatic.

Rattata took one step away from the bug type.

Meanwhile, Ash was cooking up a soup for everyone to eat up for lunch.

"I didn't know you know how to cook, Ash." Lillie at the time was setting up a large blanket for all of them to sit and eat on later.

"It came with Aura training. We didn't go to the city a lot, so we usually bought a lot of raw ingredients for us to cook and prepare ourselves. My Uncle and I spent some time learning how to prepare and cook meals when we were finished with training." He then spun carefully placed in some spices while he continued mixing the bowl.

"So I never got to ask," Joey came up to Ash. "But what exactly is Aura anyway? I mean, it's really cool to understand what Pokémon are actually saying but how does it work?"

Ash seemed to slow down his stirring as he looked to be thinking about his next choice of words. "Aura is… to put it simply as life force."

Seeing both of his friends look at him with even more confusion, Ash cleared his throat and tried again. "Umm let's try this. Aura is just like this soup and all soups—which is a metaphor for people here—have liquids in them. People who have trained with Aura are able to… change their soup into whatever type they want like egg-drop, chowder… tasty to not tasty… do you guys get it?"

Lillie and Joey both shook their heads.

"Not only am I confused, but now I'm just hungry." Joey placed a hand on his stomach.

Ash's eyes brightened as he thought of something. "I think it's best if I show it."

Now what happened next was rather odd. Ash put up a finger towards the soup and touched a big air bubble that was floating on the surface. A small cackle of electricity hit the bubble when Ash touched the bubble with his finger. However, it didn't pop when he touched it, in fact, the black haired boy then lifted his finger up, and the air bubble actually came out of the soup as if it was a solid object!

"What!?" Joey stared in awe.

Ash then swallowed the air bubble and licked his lips while his friends just gawked at him. "Aura is the essence of all things in the world. Because I can manipulate my own essence, I figured out how to manipulate the essence on elements and objects."

"Wait, you can manipulate everything!?"

Ash quickly shook his head after Lillie asked that. "What no! That was a bad explanation again… I can manipulate my own Aura and give it a physical manifestation because it's my own."

"Ugh big words." Joey scratched his head.

The raven haired boy admitted he wasn't very suited to being a teacher since he spent most of his life learning rather than teaching. But after all that learning, there must have been some teachings he could copy from.

"Alright let me try again. Hmmm…oh! Everything has aura right? So what I can do is use my own aura and pour it while mixing it with the aura of any other non-living thing that isn't myself and then manipulate it from there." Ash tried his best to dumb it down. "Like say: if I were to use Aura on my scarf, I can use aura to strengthen all the individual yarns in it and make them stretch and durable enough to be either a whip or a rope, and I can sorta… aim it? J-Just think of it like magic then cuase it does what I want it to." Ash rubbed the back of his head. Aura was pretty hard to explain since he never really questioned what it was.

"I think I'm starting to see it now… so can I use it?" Joey pointed to himself after briefly imagining himself to have super powers.

"Potentially, I'd have to check." Ash admitted before looking down on the soup. "I'm done with the soup! Everyone gather around!"

Food was all the reason needed for everyone to drop what they were doing and gather around.

However, before Ash could start his meal, he and Rojo suddenly snapped his neck towards some bushes that were away from them all.

"Hmm? Ash? What's the matter?"

"There's a weird Pokémon watching us." he blinked as he kept looking at the deep forests where everyone else seemed to have trouble spotting the Pokémon in question.

"Weird how?" Joey asked with curiosity. "And what Pokémon is it?"

"I don't know. I've never felt this type of Pokémon presence before." Ash blinked as he and Rojo seemed to look over to the left. "Huh, it's already leaving."

"Wow! Aura sounds so cool! You can see Pokémon that are invisible!?" Joey looked excited. "Master, please teach me how to do that!"

"For the last time, just call me Ash. Master feels so weird." He was about to take his first bite again until he stopped once more. "Ughh…"

"What is it, Sensei?"

Before Ash could respond to the name thing, his red Pokémon spoke up, 'This time it's a human and that person is heading towards us.' Rojo wiped his mouth after drinking directly from the bowl.

As if on cue, and older female teen came out of the bushes and into the clearing on the other side of the river. She was wearing an orange and black cap while her brown hair was sticking out of the back of the cap in the form of a pony tail. She was also similarly wearing a black and orange themed sweat shirt while wearing black pantyhose under black shorts.

She was gasping for breath and looking a bit tired. "Ugh! I lost it again!?" She screamed in frustration before a loud sound echoed out of the clearing.

The sound would have struck fear into the hearts of those who would have heard it in the unseen darkness.

However, everyone saw that the sound came from the older teen's stomach.

The girl blushed as she looked at her stomach before sniffing the air and smelling something really good. As she lifted her head, she saw Lillie, Ash, and Joey all having a meal with their Pokémon.

…

After a few seconds of awkward staring, Ash started to speak up. "Uhh, would you like some foo—"

"Yes please."

* * *

"Hmm! This is really good!" The eighteen year old teen hummed in delight as she ate the food Ash prepared.

"I'm glad you feel that way. I had a lot of practice." Ash handed her a cup of water.

"Thanks! I've been running for hours trying to catch a Pokémon." She stopped for a second to drink the water. "Thank you again for the food and I'm sorry about disturbing you all. My name is Shego, but everyone calls me Go for short." The brunette introduced herself.

The others all gave out their names before Lillie brought their conversation back to something. "Did you say you were trying to catch a Pokémon?"

"Yeah. I was trying to catch a rare Pokémon that doesn't usually appear in the Kanto Region: an Absol' it's been seen heading towards Mt. Moon for the past few weeks and I've been sent to capture it for further research."

"Sent to capture for further research?" Lillie repeated in confusion. Go looked like a normal trainer, so hearing her say something as formal as that made it seem like she was part of an organization.

"Oh right. I'm part of Team Instinct."

Joey quickly stood up in surprise. "Whoa! Really!? You're a part of Team Instinct!? That is so cool!"

However, Lillie and Ash blinked in confusion. Ash spoke up. "Huh? Team Instinct? Is that like Team Rocket?"

"What no! The three teams are nothing like Team Rocket!" Joey quickly snapped before he realized something. "Oh wait, sifu, aren't you from Sinnoh?" Was he using different words for teacher?

"Oh that explains it." The eldest teen realized before turning to Lillie. "Are you also from Sinnoh?"

"No, I'm from Alola."

"Wow. Well both regions are far from Kanto and Johto, so I think it's best to explain it." Shego explained that a few years back, a bad organization named Team Rocket ruled the underground of Kanto and Johto until a few amazing trainers defeated and dismantled the organization with the help of the league.

However, even with their major disbandment, some of their lesser branches were still active and found scattered across the region.

With how much bad organizations plagued the regions and even rumors of other similar organizations across the world, Professor Willow, world renowned Pokémon Geologist, decided to try something different.

"Professor Willow? I've read his research and I've loved his topic on Pokémon Habitats!" Lillie gushed.

Go laughed at that. "Really? You sound like my bookworm friends in Team Mystic. But let me continue on."

Professor Willow, wanting to study Pokémon, helped create three new Pokémon organizations headed by three trainers of his own choosing. Those three became the leaders of the new good organizations: Team Valor, Team Mystic, and Team Instinct which all represented their own way of helping create a much more harmonious community between people and Pokémon.

"Oh wow! I didn't know that Kanto and Johto were doing something like that!" Lillie was impressed to learn there were actual organizations that stood for what was right without any ulterior motive.

"It's a lot of fun. Trust me." Shego laughed before stopping herself short. "Long story short, being a part of the teams doesn't really change the dynamic of being a trainer. You still train, catch Pokémon, and battle others to your heart's content, but they do put an emphasis on learning more about yourself and your Pokémon."

"That sounds like fun!" Ash admitted.

"Well yeah. Though, everyone in the other teams can get really competitive. But I was sent here because there was sighting of a new Pokémon that appeared here that isn't native to either Kanto or Johto." She took out something from her bag pack and showed the younger trainers the picture of a white fur creature on four legs with a curved sword horn on its head.

"It's an Absol, a Pokémon that is rare in only a few regions and it's believed that these Pokémon have the ability to sense disaster."

"Whoa! That Pokémon looks so cool!" Joey gushed as he took the picture to get a closer look at it.

"I was asked to see if I could capture it since I was the closest member, but unfortunately it's too slippery for me and my Pokémon to catch." Shego sighed in exhaustion just thinking about it. "I've been chasing it towards Mt. Moon for the past three days."

The three younger trainers looked up to the mountain that was their next landmark: Mt. Moon. It was the last leg of their journey before they finally reached Cerulean City to meet with Bill.

"We're on our way to Mt. Moon as well!" Lillie admitted with excitement as an idea popped into our head. "We could come with you! We can help you with catching that absol while you help us navigate through Mt. Moon!"

Shego seemed to think about it. "Hmm having an extra pair of hands capturing an absol would be nice…. Sure, I do owe you guys for giving me some of your extra food." She agreed.

"Oh thank you! We'll be sure to help!" Lillie excitedly said before looking to Ash. "Ash has a talent than can help us."

"I'll hear more about it later. But first! You've gotta get me more of this food!"

Ash blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "Thanks. So who want seconds?"

Everyone, including the Pokémon, raised their hands.

* * *

Mt. Moon wasn't as impressive as the other mountains back in Alola, in fact it was rather rudimentary in comparison to other mountains. It was even overshadowed by Mt. Silver that divided both Johto and Kanto.

Still, mountains were dark and dangerous. They were always considered places one had to be prepared to venture into due to the vast amount of Pokémon hidden in the darkness.

Lillie thought that Ash wouldn't have that problem, seeing as he lived in Iron Island which could be called floating cave. However, both Ash and Rojo seemed nervous as soon as they stepped into one of the main entrances of Mt. Moon.

"Rojo, what about you?" Ash asked his riolu.

The red Pokémon silently shook his head before Ash nodded and turned back to the others.

"Rojo and I can't sense any Pokémon."

Lillie stepped forward. "You mean, just like back in Viridian City?"

"No, it's not like Viridian City. There's was a weird energy suffocating our ability to sense others, but here? There isn't any energy, in fact, Rojo and I can't sense any Pokémon life form nearby. It's like the entire mountain… is empty."

"Wait none? Not even zubats?" Joey asked curiously.

"Empty? Are you sure this aura thing is even working?" Shego asked.

Ash shrugged his shoulders. "Well I…" He suddenly paused as he stared to look deeper into the cave. "I think I just sensed one Pokémon."

He started walking ahead despite how dark it was. Ash seemingly didn't need a flash light as he continued to walk the dark path without any sign of him not knowing where he was going.

Everyone, after some traveling ended up going lower into the caves where there was this large clearing in the center.

However, Shego asked them all to stand behind some crevices before she took out some night vision goggles from her bag pack. "Ahh there's Absol! She's just standing there in the middle of the clearing." She whispered softly for everyone to hear.

"That's the absol you're after?" Ash looked in surprise as Shego handed her goggles to Lillie to see without light. "I sensed that Pokémon presence before we met with you."

Joey was handed the night vision goggles and saw the dark type just standing there. "Huh, why is it just standing there?"

"I… don't know. It was always moving when I first spotted it." Shego thoughtfully admitted as she reached for her a Poké Ball.

Ash suddenly stopped and raised a hand. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what? Is this a super king-fu thing, sensei?" Joey whispered as he looked around with the googles.

"What no, it's just… I swore I heard the sound of wind deep underground…" Ash closed his eyes and focused for a second. Something wasn't right about how empty this place was and he tried to focus on sensing his surroundings. Strangely enough there was something familiar he was sensing. He couldn't explain it, but there was something in the air that felt like he had sensed before, but he couldn't pin point what it was.

It was then he felt another soft gust of wind. This wind was different than the air he was feeling around when they first came here.

Actually, it couldn't have been wind. The wind doesn't speak.

" _Kar…ta…_ "

In an instant, Ash stood up and quickly threw a fast purple Aura Sphere behind them.

"Ash—?!" "Whoa!? What the—!?""THAT IS SO COO—!"

Lillie, Shego, and Joey all shouted out at the same time in reaction of Ash summoning a sphere of energy and throwing it behind them.

As the ball of light exploded, the flash revealed four creatures floating towards them. It was only for a moment, but Lillie's green eyes widened when her eyes captured the sight of those creatures.

"Ultra Beasts!" Lillie shrieked as the Kartana creatures came swarming after them.

Joey stood baffled, "Ultra wha—?" Before Ash grabbed him and made a dash for the clearing with another sphere in his palms to light up their area and make the girls see where they were running.

Absol turned towards the sudden sounds and growled.

The Kartana creatures shot cuts of air that slashed the ground the other four humans were previously on.

While running, Shego and Joey were understandably confused as to what these things were and making sure they weren't attacked. Ash simply said that it was rather complicated.

Rojo and Pikachu stopped running for a second before charging back at the four paper-like creatures. The fighting type jumped and drop-kicked one of the four creatures into the ground, while Pikachu made an attempt to shock the rest of them. However, both of their efforts seemed to do little to their opponents.

The three shocked Ultra Beasts cried out in anger rather than pain, while the one Rojo pinned down simply slipped under his feet with no sign of any lasting damage.

Shego threw out two Poké Balls to reveal an ivysaur and a vaporeon. "Ivy, Vapor, help Pikachu and Rojo!" Her grass and water Pokémon quickly obliged and fired their attacks at the strange creatures. Unfortunately for them, the grass type moves barely did anything to them while it looked like they avoided the water attacks.

"Guys, be careful! They can swing their limbs like swords!" Ash warned before looking at Shego. "Go, they may not get damaged, but when water hits their body, their movements become sluggish!"

"Thanks for the tip! Ivy, help pin down one of them and Vapo, drench them!" Shego cried out while Joey, Lillie, and Ash told their Pokémon to back them up.

However, they all quickly noticed that one of the paper creatures had glowing blue eyes and quickly predicted all of their opponent's movements. It slipped passed all of the front line Pokémon before unleashing a powerful Leaf Blade on the unsuspecting water type.

"It knows a grass move?!" Shego cried out as she saw her Pokémon heavily injured from just one blow.

Rojo jumped with his fist encased with steel energy, but the one creature sensed this and turned with one of his blade arms to meet with the fighting type's fist. The two attacks clashed, but Rojo was easily overpowered and flew right into Rattata.

It was then a blur passed by the four humans as Absol joined the fight, using her own sword on her head to clash blades with a Kartana trying to hit Pikachu.

Then something happened. Two of the four creatures broke off from the fight and flew towards the trainers.

The Pokémon saw all of this and tried to go after them, but the remaining two Ultra Beasts barred their path by fiercely attacking them away.

"Huh?! Why are they after us!?" Joey asked before the four of them bolted away from the creepy creatures.

"I don't know!" Lillie cried out before recalling something when these creatures first appeared. Even though Rojo was trying to distract them, they still went after her and Ash. Why did they do that?

Ash slid to a stop as he drew his staff. "Keep going! I'll hold them off!"

The other three momentarily stopped. "Ash, wait!" Lillie screamed.

Both Kartana lifted their a limb to the sky as Ash reinforced his own staff with his aura. The two paper creatures slashed down as their limbs made contact with Ash's empowered staff—

FWASHOM!

No one had caught it, but something happened when the Ultra Beasts made contact with Ash's Aura. A spark of electricity connected the two and a powerful impact blew away Ash to the floor.

The Pokémon and Ultra Beasts stopped fighting as they all turned towards the event in the center.

Lillie and Shego helped Ash up but all of them looked back up to see a crack in the middle of the clearing that was lighting up the whole dark area. The crack widened before suddenly expanding into a giant wormhole.

"A-Another Ultra Wormhole!?" Lillie gasped with wide eyes. How could something like that appear in a place so uninspiring?

The screeches of the Kartana echoed through the cave and quickly they made their way into the portal.

With the Ultra Beasts gone, the Pokémon all quickly ran to the humans.

'Ash, are you alright!?' Rojo asked his friend.

"I've got a headache that doesn't seem to be going away." The boy rubbed the back of his head. "Uhh Lillie, how often are these Ultra Wormholes supposed to appear?"

"They are supposed to be topological anomalies that are initiated by a heavy puncturing on space-time fabric!"

"I'm just going to assume by your tone that your saying, 'no, it's not often'." Ash easily pointed a finger out while saying something that everyone else silently agreed with.

Unfortunately for all of them, there was another deafening boom that came from the wormhole as it suddenly stared sparking a lot of electricity.

Slowly rocks started floating were sucked inside the wormhole, and then the intensity of the air around the wormhole dramatically spiked and was now threatening to pull everyone else into the wormhole!

While everyone tried to stand their ground, Joey and his Rattata suddenly found themselves being jerked towards the unstable wormhole.

Ash acted quick and planted his staff in to the ground while at the same time, uncurling his scarf and pouring aura into it. "Joey, catch!" He flicked his scarf like a whip, and with the power of Ash's aura, the scarf somehow extended and quickly tied itself around the two lightweights.

Shego was surprised on how Ash was doing that, but she pressed that thought aside as she commanded her ivysaur to use Vine Whip to help. Ash and Ivy then yanked as hard as they could and ended up throwing Joey a safe distance back behind to some stalagmites.

However, no sooner than they did the intensity of the wormhole increased, threatening everyone else from being sucked in.

"Ivy! Use vine whip on those thicker Stalagmites, and pull us over there!" Shego cried out as her grass type quickly took her and Lillie with Pikachu in her arms towards where Joey was.

However, while they were making their way, larger boulders were drawn towards the portal and ended up flying towards the grass type and her passengers.

"Rojo, now!"

A red and purple sphere flew past the passengers and blasted the large boulders into dust and chunked them in such a way that they would harmlessly pass the others.

Ash, Absol, and Rojo stayed behind, still clinging to the staff as the vortex's pull became stronger.

"Ash!" Lillie cried in horror. The only way out of the Ultra Dimension was with her friend Nebby all the way back in Alola! Even if she could eventually get to them, Ash might lose his sanity if he stayed too long in the Ultra Dimension! "You have to get out of there!"

Ash looked to the Absol. "You go first!"

The dark type looked to him with a worried look. 'Human, I have the ability to sense large scale disasters! That means I can tell that this portal will on grow in power if it is not somehow closed! I saw you and those creatures were the cause of it's opening, can you somehow close it before it continues to increase in power!?' Then the ground shook heavily beneath all of them.

Cracks were beginning to appear on the ground with boulders falling from the ceiling and crashing into the ground. The group farther away screamed to Ash to hurry up before the cave collapses on them.

The young aura boy shook his head. "I caused this!? But I was just defending…" The young man trailed off as he looked back towards the wormhole and his eyes widened in surprise. "Rojo! I need you to scan the wormhole with your aura! Now!"

The red Pokémon seemed confused, but trusted his partner and did so. When he did, his eyes snapped open in utter shock.

The wormhole had the same exact aura signature as Ash!

'W-What!?' Rojo blinked in surprise before noticing something he had always seen in his friend: that same look in his eyes when a plan was forming in his head. Rojo was always thankful for that look whenever they were in a pinch, but this time? There was this sinking feeling in his stomach about what was coming next.

Ash quickly tossed one end of his scarf to Rojo. "You know how to use aura to manipulate objects right? I'm trusting both of you to pull me back!" He started tying the other end of the scarf around his waist.

'What?! Ash, what are you doing!?' His Pokémon cried out before Absol stopped him.

'Get ready to pull, lest we all perish.' He said solemnly.

"It has my aura, so with that logic, I should be able to control it right?" It didn't take a genius to figure out that Ash's laughter right after saying that sounded weak and nervous.

'Do you even know how stupid that sounds!?' Rojo argued. However, the ground shook even worse than before.

"We won't be able to escape in time at this rate, I have to try!" Ash shouted as he then made his way towards the portal, making sure to stop just before the opening.

Ash inhaled, he could tell that Lillie and the others were worried and confused at what he was doing, but they weren't going to leave that spot they were stuck in or else they would get hit by falling debris.

He calmed himself and tried to… close the portal as if it was his own aura. He first stood in front of it, firmly trying to dig his feet under some rocks as he pointed his palms in front of the wormhole. Then he tried to connect with it through his aura, which he did and he felt this really bizarre feeling come over him, but he focused at the tasked at hand. The two auras interlocked perfectly and Ash quickly tried to force them to collapse on itself and close.

Amazingly, it started to work. The Ultra Wormhole was getting smaller and its effects were lessening slowly but surely.

As Ash kept this up, the ground started to calm down and the portal was starting to shrink—

+ꙚꙜꜨꝷ ﬄﭻ+

Ash opened his eyes and looked inside the portal. There was this familiar sound coming from deep within the portal. Suddenly, the boy struggled as it felt like something was trying to force open the wormhole again and he started exerting more force into forcing it to close.

The aura user could only stand and continue to close the portal as a giant, shadowy, and branch like arm shot out of the Ultra Wormhole.

" **Ash!** " Rojo and Lillie yelled out at the same time in fear.

In the palm of the willowy, dark hand a purple eye opened up and stared into Ash as he continued to try and close the portal.

ﮬ ₹₴₤ᶔ?

The hand created some unintelligible sounds as it slowly started to descend on Ash.

That was the last straw, Rojo was about to yank Ash back until he was distracted by a blur right beside him.

Ash couldn't move as he was still closing the portal, but his mind was firing thought after thought at to what exactly was in front of him.

It seemed like the hand was going to grab him until Absol slammed the hand back into the portal with him along with it.

"Absol!" Ash cried out in shock.

'Human!' Inside the portal, the Absol landed while staring down the shadow hand as it started to blather a much more rapid frequency of other worldly sounds in such a way that it seemed angry. 'Close the portal!'

"I'm not trapping you in there! Get out!"

Both Absol and Ash then got distracted as deeper into the portal… more shadow hands were fast approaching.

The first hand made an attempt to get back out of the portal, but Absol slashed at its eyes causing it to wince back in bizarre pain as it writhed around in a very erratic and unpredictable manner.

Absol looked back, more determined than ever. 'Close it now human! Search for my master Mew! Tell them of this day!'

The Absol screamed as he ran deeper into the portal with his claws and blade sharpened towards the incoming hands to prevent them from getting out.

Ash's breathing hurried as he really wanted to save that absol, but his scarf was back with Rojo and he couldn't move.

'What are you waiting for!? CLOSE IT NOW!' The Absol stopped to scream at him. But because he paused in his assault one of the hands grabbed him.

Then another.

Then two more.

Then three more.

Then thirteen more.

It was Absol's distorted screams of pain that finally snapped Ash out of his stupor and force the portal shut just before the remaining hands shot out and tried to grab him.

The portal was closed shut and no sooner than that was done, the cave had become silent again.

Everyone quickly ran up to Ash, who fell into the ground to his knees clenching his fists to the point it looked like he was starting to bleed.

"DARN IT!" Ash roared as he punched the ground, giving one good shake before he fell in to the ground.

He had made a promise to be an Aura Knight, someone to protect people and Pokémon.

The young boy lived by that creed.

And now? He had just willing abandoned an innocent soul to terrible and unknown fate.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

Okay, this chapter focuses a bit on one of this story's main plot points: Aura.

Now, a lot of people here can agree Aura is cool. It lets humans potentially have the same powers as Pokémon (Aka Riley and Sir Aaron-and lesser extent Ash) However, we can all agree that everyone thinks that giving someone aura suddenly makes them super human who can do nearly everything.

Here, I liked aura, but I wanted to do something far more original than what other writers have done with it. Then we go back to my one of my favorite Anime, JJBA.

I based Aura in this story to Hamon from the Jojo universe. It does give the first two main characters strength, but it does so in a way that doesn't make them too strong and makes them both rely on a bit of creativity to use and win. One of the drawbacks, from a story perspective, is that it's so vague in how it works that it is usually joked about how it's magic even though there does seem to be scientific properties combined with them. Granted, it is labeled under supernatural tags, but the problem seemed to the author was that Hamon was made to be way too versatile, so he gave up on them even though they were actually really cool. (This is just an assumption, but I just guessed from seeing a few videos on Stands and Hamon)

One of the reasons why I put so much detail into giving Aura more rules and such is that it actually serves a purpose in this story rather than to increase the powers of certain characters.

Now, I've gotten two reviews, both are similar, but they do ask some important questions.

The first common one was that apparently Rojo, the riolu was actually red. I was told that this had been done a lot before, and I admit it's nothing ground breaking, but I wasn't aware that it had been done a lot of times before.

I will admit this right now: I only wanted Rojo to be red just so he could stand out from other Riolu and such. He really is a normal riolu with some personality quirks. I had in my notes that there was a mutation that changed the color of his fur to make it red, but it was nothing magical or significant. (While this is still in my notes, it's liable to change in the future since it's not officially in the story yet.)

.

But before I continue, how do you like the story so far? I do appreciate your reviews, but I would appreciate them more if they were more than one sentence saying it was good. You don't need to do increase the length of them. I just would like to know **what specifically** you like about this story or chapter. Or even dislike or hate.

If you guys explained a bit more, this story could improve. **You guys DO have influence on this story.**

But seriously thanks for reading and supporting this story. It helps a lot.


	7. Ch 7: Cloaked Crusaders

Riley placed the roast swinub on the table. "Ash, Rojo! Dinner's ready!"

At the sound of his voice, an eight year old Ash and Rojo raced towards their seats. As they did, they seemed to be playing some sort of roughhousing game due to the fact both of them were trying to push and shove one another while running.

Unfortunately, while the two were kids, the fact remained that they had untapped power that was above the average capabilities of both their respective species. They didn't quite understand the term, holding back, and soon started gathering up Aura around their hands.

Before the two could elevate their violence, Riley's Lucario picked the two of them up off the ground and promptly walked the rest of the way towards the dining table with little difficulty.

'Both of you stop.' The evolved Pokémon put them both down in their seats gently. The few words were enough to pacify the two young boys. Both of them still rebelled in their own way, staying absolutely still while pouting as if folding their arms and looking miserable would make their situation better.

Riley laughed at the little episode in front of him. Ash and Rojo were always a lively duo that really brightened up his and Lucario's life in Iron Island.

"Behave you two, or you won't get desserts."

The two children stiffened, but one could tell they weren't completely out of their moods.

That changed as soon as Riley put the food on the table and everyone started to eat.

Riley couldn't help but smile as Ash and Rojo made an effort to eat rather than chewing and swallowing. Not only was it somewhat heartwarming to see kids act like kids, but he was getting a sense of nostalgia from it. "You remind me a lot like your father."

It was then Riley realized that he had just accidentally spoken a taboo.

"I dof?" The young boy spoke before he swallowed the food in his mouth.

Lucario looked over worryingly at Riley before the raven haired man sighed and thought it would be best to do this now.

"Yes. In many ways you are just like Nix. He was rather simple and very lively, but there were very few people that cared for others as much as your father did." Riley gave a somber smile. "But he did have this one flaw that I don't think you should inherit."

"Flaw?" The small boy tilted his head in confusion. It was weird of his godfather to tell him his super cool dad had flaws, but then again, he hadn't seen his father in a long time.

"Ash, no one is perfect, not me, not your father… no one is. But that doesn't stop us from trying to be good people, remember that alright? Your father… when he screws up, he tends to be very hard on himself and never lets it go." Riley frowned. "So promise me one thing. If you do fail, please learn to forgive yourself and move on for the sake of others."

Riley probably was saying something that an eight year old boy wouldn't understand, but the way Ash nodded his head… it meant that he was taking those words into consideration.

He just hoped Phoenix would learn that lesson soon.

* * *

Shego had kept her promise and helped the kids to Cerulean City late in the afternoon. Though the rest of the trip to the city was deathly quiet and awkward.

When they reached the city limits, Shego turned to the three of them. "Okay, we're here in Cerulean City. Now, I'm gonna have to leave you guys and go back to Pewter City because I have some duties to fulfill back over there, you sure you'll all be alright?"

To her surprise, Ash spoke up first after a long time silent. "I'm sure we'll be fine. Thanks a lot for your help."

Shego blinked before putting a hand on his shoulder with care. "Ash… are you sure you'll be alright?"

"I'm fine. I promise." The heterochromia eyed boy smiled softly in response.

Shego couldn't really read if Ash was faking it, but she didn't quite believe he was alright from that, especially with his reaction. "Just take it easy. And make sure you take better care of your hands next time." She looked at the bandaged on his palm for one he clenched them to hard to the point of them bleeding and punching his hand into the ground right after.

Ash rubbed the back of his head before looking over to Lillie. He winced as he recalled the minute they all got out of the mountain, Lillie demanded they stop and she would bandage Ash's hands from being infected after damaging them himself. While she did the process, she did nothing but glare and scold Ash for being so reckless.

It was not very pleasant.

It still seemed Lillie was mad at him because when Ash turned her way, she quickly looked in the opposite direction.

Shego couldn't help but put a small smile up at the action and leaned in to Ash's ear. "You also might want to make things up to her for making her worry."

"I guess I owe a lot of people for making them worry." By that sense, Ash owed Rojo, Joey, and the others as well for making them worried to.

Ash raised his brow when Shego's reaction to him saying that looked… disappointed? Why? Did he do something wrong again? He was going to make it up to everyone, but why did she bring up just Lillie only when the others were worried as well.

Shego seemed to kindly narrow her eyes with a somewhat disappointed look, before shaking her head and then going over to Lillie.

"Thanks again for your help." Lillie bowed politely to Shego, but the older girl was a little surprised by the action.

The orange themed girl gave a thumbs up. "No problem, I needed to repay you guys for the free food in the first place." She then leaned near Lillie to whisper, "Also, don't be too hard on Ash. Men aren't the smartest of creatures after all."

The blonde girl was a bit confused as to why she said that last sentence, but Shego then went over to Joey.

"Watch over the two lovebirds for me, okay kid?" She put out her fist for Joey to bump it with his own.

"Don't worry I will!" Joey proudly huffed as the three of them said goodbye to Shego one last time along with their Pokémon.

With that, the party headed towards the Cerulean City Pokémon Center—

Joey stopped for a second while Ash and Lillie walked ahead of him.

"Wait, what did she just call those two?" The words that Shego said finally clicked in Joey's head as he scratched his head. He figured it probably wasn't that important and followed after his two new friends.

* * *

When they finally reached the Pokémon Center, the trio quickly signed up for rooms to stay in for the night.

But when they did so, Nurse Joy told them something interesting. "You are Lillie, yes? From the Aether Foundation?"

The blonde girl nodded in surprise.

"You have a phone call waiting for you from Alola."

"I-I do?!" The emerald eyed girl couldn't help but express surprise at that.

"Yes, All Pokémon Centers are notified to look for trainers if they are referenced for a call. It's still open right now. I'll open up a booth for you." The pink haired nurse explained before giving her a number.

With that, Lillie quickly went towards the booth number she was given. As she left, Ash sighed and started to walk back out towards the door.

"Teacher! Where are you going?" Joey looked towards the teen.

"I'm just going to look around the city. I've never been here before and… a walk sounds good right now." The weather outside looked quite nice as well despite it being night.

To Joey, maybe Ash wasn't feeling as well as he claimed he did. "Then I'll come with you!"

Ash didn't say anything and just walked out with Joey and Rojo following after him.

Meanwhile, Lillie and Pikachu sat down on the video phone booth before Lillie opened it up.

"Lillie!"

Several screams came out from the other ends as the video opened up to show four screens of four different people who were all smiling wide.

"Guys! Oh I missed you all!"

On the bottom left hand corner, there was a blonde boy with a bang covering over one of his eyes while he wore all black. This teen was Gladion, Lillie's older brother.

On the bottom right was a black haired girl with huge brown eyes wearing an Alolan get up with a red cap on her head. This was Lillie's best friend, Luna.

In the top left corner was a boy who was smiling as wide as humanly possible. His skin showed a deep tan and had green hair—his name was Hau and he seemed especially excited by how hard he was waving over in his screen.

Last but in no way least was someone who looked like a male version of Luna, but he wore a cap and had short sleeved clothes. He was Luna's twin brother, Sol.

Lillie gave a wide smile at the friends she made with back in Alola that changed her life. "You guys!? How did you set this all up?"

"Ms. Wicke gave the idea! It's great to hear from you again Lillie!" For Hau, it was easy for everyone to notice that he was happier and more excitable than usual.

"It's good to see you again to!" Lillie returned with a smile.

'Who are these guys?' Pikachu asked as he jumped to table on Lillie's side.

"Oh my gosh! Lillie, is that a Pikachu?" Luna asked as the small electric mouse came into view. Lillie blinked in surprise; she had forgotten that only she could understand Pokémon thanks to Ash's aura trick, the others must have assumed that Pikachu was just repeating his name.

Lillie signaled Pikachu climb up on her shoulder. "Y-Yeah he's my first official Pokémon! But he and I are still deciding a name for him."

'I refuse to be known as Ohm.' Pikachu deadpanned quickly.

"It's a good name!" Lillie huffed quietly back at him..

"I'm glad you have a Pikachu, Lillie!" Hau rubbed the back of his head. "Those guys are adorable and so friendly!"

"Hahaha… right… friendly…" Lillie trailed off as she recalled the many times Pikachu shocked her when they first met.

Pikachu seemed to stare at Hau after that like he was interested by the Alola native for some reason.

'Does that guy wear grass for hair?' The Pikachu asked while Hau was waving at him and completely oblivious to the rather blunt attitude of Lillie's Pikachu.

"Hey, is it true that Raichu from the Kanto region aren't part psychic type?" The green haired boy asked.

"Oh that's true. I've seen them before but personally their not as cute as the ones here in Alola." Luna described.

It was at this interval, Sol finally spoke up. "So Lillie, how are you doing? Gladion heard from some people that you traveled to Cerulean City yourself after some car troubles."

"Car troubles?" Lillie tilted her head before looking at Pikachu. It came as no surprise that she eventually did recall the limo blowing up… partly due to Pikachu's participation again. It's just that she couldn't recall quickly because of all the events that followed after over shadowed that part.

"Oh, I've been fine." The blonde girl supposed. "I've been traveling like a trainer like all of you and Pikachu and Ash have been keeping me company."

"Ash?" Gladion asked with a hint of suspicion. "Is that another Pokémon you caught?"

Lillie blinked in surprise. "Oh no. He's a friend that Professor Oak invited to come along the journey with me. I've been traveling with Ash these past few days."

"You're traveling with someone?" For some reason, Lillie swore she could hear disappointment coming from Sol when he asked that.

"What's he like?" Luna asked too quickly, unknowingly making the other three boys uneasy for different reasons.

What was Ash like? Oh gosh how could she describe how bizarre Ash is as a person when she first met him? He's a super hero? He can make people talk to Pokémon? However, all that came out of her mouth was, "He's… unpredictable."

"What kind of description is that?" Gladion folded his arms. "And how come we haven't heard of him from the workers?"

'Yeesh, what's that guy's problem?' Pikachu scoffed as he gave a deadpan stare towards Lillie's brother. 'And Rojo said I had issues.'

"He's a really nice guy. He's a friend," Lillie quickly corrected herself. "It's just that so far, it's been one adventure after the next and it's… rather exciting. There's never a dull moment." She smiled as she recalled her first encounter with Ash back at Pallet town.

Being chased by Ultra Beasts and warding away by splashing a lake on them; accidentally stumbling on an evil plot to kidnap Pokémon by brainwashing; getting kidnapped by a gang of bug Pokémon…

To be honest, she was kind of getting used to having such an active adventure when back in Alola she more or less tagged along and followed the others. As she thought about it, no wonder Sol laughed at her for just crossing a bridge and claiming that it was her own trial; that was literally just walking compared to what everyone's been through.

"I'm glad to see you're making new friends and having fun Lillie!" Luna happily encouraged while the guys seemed to also agree with a little less enthusiasm, not that Lillie noticed that.

But then a thought occurred to Lillie, one that she had completely forgotten until that moment. "By the way, Sol, how's Nebby doing?"

The young man in question had his eyes widen. Actually, it wasn't just him that did this action, all of Lillie's close friends seemed to flinch at the mention of that topic.

'Who's Nebby?' Pikachu whispered to himself with curiosity. Come to think of it, didn't she say that name when she first tried to put him back into the Poké Ball?

"Something is off with him." Gladion spoke up, making the other three look at him with shock. "Look, she deserves to know."

"What!?" Lillie seemed worried. "What's wrong with Nebby?!"

It was at this moment that Sol spoke up. "W-We don't actually know. For the past few days, I've been finding him growling angrily towards Kanto. It's like he thinks something is wrong. It's one of the reasons why we've all tried calling you, to see if you were safe."

Nebby was growling towards Kanto? Wait… could that be because he can sense the Ultra Wormholes and Ultra Beasts from all the way over there?

"Where is Nebby now?"

"Oh he's sleeping right now, but like after midnight here in Alola, he was roaring like crazy and it almost looked like we all would have to calm him down by force." Sol admitted sadly.

Wait, after midnight in Alola? Kanto and Alola had different time zones where Kanto was ahead by half a day. If it was early morning there when it happened, did that mean it could it be related to…

"By any chance did this happen around 5 hours ago?" Lillie asked very specifically, surprising all of her friends.

Gladion's eyes sharpened. "Yes, it did. How did you know that?"

The blonde girl from Alola had her mind flash back to the bottom of Mt. Moon where that… _thing_ … came out of the Ultra Wormhole. It wasn't anything like the Nihilego she saw in the Ultra Dimension; there was just something that made her entire mind scream in fear of what that—that… whatever it was that went after Ash and caused Absol to sacrifice itself to save them.

Lillie closed her eyes shut as if by closing her eyes she could forget the horrible thing that had come out of the Ultra Wormhole. "T-There was an Ultra Wormhole that appeared here in Kanto."

"Another Ultra Wormhole!?" Hau, and understandably the others, screamed in shock.

Sol was the second to calm down right after Gladion, but he was the first to ask, "Lillie this is very important! Did another Ultra Beast come out of there!?"

Lillie had flashes of the _thing's_ _eye_. When it first revealed itself, the green eyed girl felt like something had forcefully grabbed her throat and crushed her heart in one long second. She only snapped out of it when Absol tackled the arm back into the portal.

"I-I don't think it was an Ultra Beast." She admitted.

"What do you—"

And then the call dropped.

Lillie and Pikachu blinked in surprise. It's very unlikely that all four of them would suddenly hang up at the same time while in the middle of a conversation.

The girl was about to check of there was something wrong with her phone booth until all the lights suddenly died.

* * *

Ash with Rojo ridding on his shoulder was peacefully taking in the sights as they were walking down the street.

'So are we finally going to talk about what happened in the cave?' Rojo finally asked as they trailed a bit ahead of Joey and his Rattata while the two younger pair looked around excitedly.

"I'm fine Rojo. Really, I just… wish I could have done more to help Absol." He sighed deeply.

'Ash, we can't save everyone. It's one of the things Master Riley taught us while we were training.'

"I know; I know… it just… hurts…. I saw those-those things… I not only saw him die, but I felt his entire aura just burn away. It's like even his soul was destroyed when those things consumed him." Ash shook his head.

'I'm sorry, I didn't sense that.' Rojo placed his palm at the back of Ash's head to try and comfort him. His best friend always was the one who seemed to care much more than he really should have.

"No one deserved to die like that."

"But didn't he save us?"

Ash stopped and turned to look back at Joey. It seemed like he wasn't as far behind as he thought.

"It's pretty easy to feel down when you've think you could have done better after a big mistake. But it doesn't really help you now just thinking about it all the time."

Ash paused at how simply that was worded and gave a small smile. "You're right about that Joey."

"My dad used to say that a lot." A proud smile came on the young boy when he spoke about his dad. "Whenever I made mistakes, he would tell me that they can be fixed if you're willing to put the effort and not let it plague you."

Ash's smile dropped a bit at the mention of Joey's dad. "He sounds like a great man."

He wasn't expecting the young trainer to also drop his smile. "Yeah. He really was…"

Rojo and Rattata eyed each other before Rojo pointed to a random building. 'Hey! What's that over there! I've never seen a building like that before!' He made an effort to be loud enough for Joey and Ash to hear him.

The two humans looked over to where Rojo was pointing to see a dome shaped building with a Dewgong above the main entrance.

"Oh hey! It's the Cerulean Gym! I sorta forgot about that." Joey admitted before his eyes slowly widened to the size of plates. "Oh crap! I forgot to train the Iron Tail!" he clamped his head with his hands.

'I never asked, but what moves do you know?' Rojo asked the purple Pokémon on the ground.

'I know Tackle, Quick Attack, and Endeavor.'

Ash found himself chuckling at Joey's over the top reaction. "Don't worry, Joey, I'm sure you'll… you'll…. Um Joey? Do you remember what time it is right now?"

"Last time I saw the clock, it was like 9:13. Why?" The young boy noticed his friend/sensei looked somewhat befuddled himself when looking at the gym building. "Is this another aura thing?"

"Well it's just… I'm sensing a lot of people and Pokémon inside that building. When do the gyms close for the day?"

"Nine isn't really late, but most gyms usually call it quits like around seven so they can clean up and repair damages." Joey added in, realizing the significance of why Ash was asking what time it was.

"So if gyms close early, why are there so many people in the gym?"

The two boys looked at each other before making their way towards the gym and slowing down to sneak around the back.

Ash led Joey to walk slowly and quietly as they both moved. To the young teen's aura sensing ability, he noticed something else that didn't seem normal. Joey saw this only later as they turned a corner.

"Something tells me Kanto gym leaders don't wear full body cloaks in the middle of the night." Ash duly noted.

There was a large group of people surrounding what seemed to be the back. All of them were wearing the same black, somewhat raggedy cloak and beside them were Pokémon from all walks of life like Haunter, Umbreon, Duskull, Magnezone, and other Pokémon you could find all across the world.

Something was off about them though, and Ash didn't need his powers to see that. There was just something about eerie with how synchronized the cloaked people were walking.

Ash felt a small tug on his sleeve to see Joey silently pointing to a path in the garage area that was covered by boxes. There was no patrol going near there and it looked far enough from the group of weirdoes.

As they went up to a unprotected door, the aura user clicked his tongue. "Darn an electric lock. The aura trick doesn't work on those."

While Ash was thinking, he noticed his self proclaimed student point above him. "What about the vents?"

Indeed, there was a metal bracket the two could use to potentially sneak in. However… "I can open them, but you and I can't even fit in there."

'We can.' Rojo pointed to him and Rattata. 'You can clearly see there's something not right about all of this.'

"We could escape and get the police…" Ash offered but then he shook his head. "Though I don't know how fast we can get there and come back here in time." The young boy removed his bag pack and quickly fished for something. "I've got walkie talkies in here just in case Rojo and I need to separate again."

'You are never letting that Skymory training go are you?' The red Riolu lightly quipped.

"What do you think? But this is not the time for that!" Ash whispered back before giving Rojo the walkie.

Ash removed his scarf and then aimed right at the vent. The scarf split into separate pieces of yarn that quickly stretched, loosened, and caught the screws. The young aura user quietly placed the vent down, not to catch the attention of the Pokémon outside and helped Rattata and Rojo get up in the vent.

With that done, ash quickly placed his scarf back on. "I'm just hoping this is a real big misunderstanding, but don't let yourselves be caught, alright?"

The two nodded and Rojo gave a thumbs up as a sign not to worry before they went in.

With both of them going in, Ash decided that it was too risky to stay where they were and helped joey and he sneak back out of the garage and stay a safe distance away from the mysterious group behind some bushes. He didn't want to go too far in case something went wrong.

When he was sure it was safe, Ash activated the walkie talkie. "Rojo, how is it in there?"

'It's way dustier in here than they make it in the movies.' Rojo held his nose as to prevent himself from sneezing. Meanwhile Rattata seemed used to the dirt they were both walking in. 'I'm following the aura of a large group of people in the middle of the room.'

"Just stay safe and don't get caught."

'No need to state the obvious. I can be stealthy.' The young Riolu snapped back. The two Pokémon made their way to what seemed to be the center of the gym, a grand looking stadium with floating water platforms and what seemed to be like a stadium of some sort.

'Ash, something is wrong. There are more cloaked figures in here and they've tied up these four girls. Also, the rest of them seem to be surrounding a tank full of water Pokémon.' Rojo whispered.

Rattata squinted his eyes. 'How can you see them from all the way up here?'

'I can focus aura around my senses to make only one of them sharper for a short period of time.' After explaining that, Rojo switched his aura into his ears to try and hear the conversation down below.

"And thus we have secured the gym leaders. Take them all to separate transports as I deal with their remaining Pokémon." A deep voice loudly projected towards everyone else. It didn't take much to realize that the one speaking was obviously the leader of this group of strangers.

'Ash, they're bringing some people to one of those vans outside.'

The two boys peeked out the bushes and noticed some of the vans going into the garage. Even though they did, the patrols outside still remained relatively the same. Eventually, Ash noticed that there were indeed four girls being divided into different trucks while being tied up in rope.

Back inside, Rojo and Rattata continued to listen in on the leader.

"Subdue these Pokémon. The less resistance we can obtain; the better. Then make contact with our agents who are aiming for the Pokémon Center."

Rojo's eyes snapped open. 'Ash! They've got agents heading towards the Pokémon Center!'

Ash's eyes widened at the new information, but unfortunately for him that wasn't the only reason to be alarmed.

"They're going to the Pokémon Center!?"

The heterochromia eyed boy turned to Joey who uselessly clamped his mouth from shouting that out in surprise. Ash had more experience keeping a cool head because of his aura training and the fact he had to usually remain level headed to balance out some of Rojo's burst of anger. However, he neglected the fact that Joey was in no way used to a situation where they had to sneak around from a large group of people.

Ash panicked as he felt all of the people heading quickly towards their direction and acted fast by giving Joey the walkie talkie, Kaku's Poké Ball, and his bag pack. "Do not move until it's safe and be quiet!"

He quickly got up and bolted, leaving behind a stupefied Joey. Had Ash abandoned hi—

"There! That sound must have been that boy! Get him!" One of the men shouted as they all raced after him and ran away from the hiding spot Joey and Ash were a few seconds ago.

Joey blinked. That was why Ash ran!? So that's why he told him to be quiet! They only heard a sound; they won't expect there to be more than one intruder if Ash pretended he was trying to run for getting caught. They would be too focused on not letting him get away.

Joey peeked from behind one of the bushes he was hiding in. Despite how fast Ash ran, he was cut off by the flying Pokémon in their group and eventually subdued by the cloaked figures.

The young ten year old winced as he saw one of them punch Ash hard in the stomach to knock him out and then they started to drag his body back into the building.

He felt utterly useless in this scenario—even worse than that: he caused this problem in the first place! While enveloped with frustration he clenched the walkie talkie tighter in his grip. He screwed up big time, but he was not letting his friend suffer for his mistake.

"Rojo, this is Joey. The figures—they've taken Ash!" The young teen year old half expected Rojo to burst out screaming into the radio.

'Dang it,' His voice sounded chained to the point where it seemed like the fighting type was using a large chunk of his will power to not lose it right then and there, 'This changes everything. What do we do?'

Joey recalled what Ash had taught him in the few lessons they had. Sometimes, he had to use his head instead of relying on power.

"I think I have a plan, but I need you two to get out of there now!" Joey whispered as he looked back up from his hiding spot. Because everyone went to subdue Ash, Joey noticed that trucks were all unmanned. "Come quickly! I have a plan!"

* * *

Ash felt his lungs contract painfully as he tried gasping for breath. As much as he wanted to use aura to strength his muscles and defense, but he decided not to use his abilities to make his captors think he was a normal person and escape when the time was right.

However, he was surprised that he was brought back into the gym and placed in front of another cloaked figure. It was really hard to distinguish any one of these guys from another except who Ash assumed to be the leader.

There were some obvious clues as why the aura user assumed that this man was the leader. Everyone else brought him to this man, so he had to be the leader. The second fact was this man towered over very one else. He might have even been eight feet tall if it was possible.

"Where did you find this boy?" He spoke in a deep tone as he asked the ones who brought Ash before him.

The other two bowed their heads lightly and placed their right hands across their chest in respect. "He was hiding nearby until we heard him make a sound, High Crusader."

High Crusader? What did that mean?

While Ash was wondering deep in thought, the High Crusader removed his hood, letting the boy with two colored eyes see who exactly this man was.

He had skin that was the same color as charcoal and he was completely bald, but above his right eye… what kind of symbol was that? Wait… is that a scar? It almost looked like someone took a knife and carved that odd symbol of an upside-down triangle with three horizontal lines spread over it.

Actually, it looked like a symbol… like a mark of some kind. It looked to clean to be a scar unlike the other flesh wounds he could see.

Yet despite all those scars, his eyes had some of the brightest lights one could ever see, as if each scar only helped strengthen his will.

"Who are you?" The High Crusader looked down on Ash with an unreadable face. The aura user started to sweat; the man was obviously looking for something while staring at him.

"Ferris Johnson." Ash lied about his name.

The High Crusader bent one knee down to look Ash in the eye. The young teen did his best not to react. "Well then, Mr. Johnson, where are your Pokémon?"

Ash couldn't help but blink at that. "I don't have any. I was just walking at night until I saw your men."

The scarred man continued to stare at the teen with the deepest of stares. Yet Ash was one to know how to keep calm in bad situations from his training in Iron Island.

The man stood up and looked down towards the teen. Ash could have sworn he saw the faintest of twitches on his lips that for a second looked to curl upward like a smirk.

"You are good at lying. However, it doesn't matter whether or not your Pokémon are close by or if you saved them. You will make an excellent soldier to our cause."

Ash was caught off guard by that. Solider? These guys needed soldiers?

"I want this boy under heavy surveillance. I get the feeling he is far more cunning than he acts." He snapped his fingers as more guards surrounded and dragged Ash away.

Before the young boy could resist, he saw a Gloom come up to him and hit him with a Sleeping Powder to his face.

It didn't take long for Ash to fall into sleep.

* * *

It didn't take long for things to go south quickly. The moment the lights shut down, Lillie heard screams and stray attacks. However, the girl couldn't hear much of anything due to the fact she felt a numbing pain at the back of her head.

"…e…ie…L…Lillie!"

Fighting a horrible headache, the blonde girl slowly woke up from a rocking ground and looked up.

"S-Sol?" She squinted her eyes at the shadowy figure in front of her.

"Who's Sol?" The figure shook his head and quickly asked. "Lillie, are you alright?"

It was actually dark, so when her eyes adjusted, the first thing she noticed was that familiar and kind purple right eye. "A-Ash?"

It was then she tried to move, only to find something was constricting her arms.

"H-hand… cuffs?" It was then the Alolan girl noticed Ash was wearing the same cuffs chaining his arms. "Wh-What's going on? Wh-where are we!?"

"Ugh will you keep it down!? I have this throbbing headache from whatever those guys hit me with…" Even though it was dark, Lillie could still see on the other side of this shaky room was a girl with red hair that stood out in the dark.

"That's Misty. She's the Cerulean Gym Leader." Ash explained. "And no, even I don't know where we're going."

The gym leader of the city? What was she doing here? No, seriously, what was going on here?

As more of Lillie's senses came back, she felt the ground… shaking? Wasn't this a car? Wait… where was Pikachu?!

The ground finally stopped shaking and a few seconds later, half a dozen cloaked figures wielding spears pointed them at the three of them.

"On your feet! Move!" One of them said as he seemingly pressed button on one of the silver spears that seemed to make it start glowing and shock Ash.

The male teen winced while the two other girls stared in horror.

"The next shock will be longer and more painful you don't move now!" The cloaked figure barked.

Soon, all three of them came out of what was a van and saw the area that they were being escorted to.

Both Ash and Lillie gapped.

Even though with the severity of the situation, Ash looked over to a sign they were passing by and commented to Lillie.

"Hey, looks like we're going to meet with the famous Bill after all."

They had finally reached their destination of Bill's lab… just not in the way they hoped to imagine.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

Don't worry folks! Joey and his top percentage Rattata will save the day along with the immobile Kakuna, Kaku and the easily triggered Riolu, Rojo!

…

… Yeah they're screwed.

Thank you all for the better reviews for this story. It made me smile to see all those new reviews to this story and I did mean what I said. I do take your reviews into account even though I sometimes don't respond directly to them.

Review Response

Guest (March 17): You sir, deserve an internet cookie. There may be a possibility of me working this in with some other funny shenanigans. (Plus the Z-Move poses do not help in stopping the Jojo influence on this story.)

Johnny Spectre: The other teams? I think I get what you're saying, but why did you mention that?

ShadowDragon9000: Thanks again for the detailed review. For the capitalization part. I was confused when a previous reviewer told me that only proper names should be capitalized and the rest wasn't. Guess I did poorly in trying that, so I'll just stick with what I've been doing so far. It's not that bad anyway.

Rales Mckoy: I'm glad someone caught what I made Absol say. Legendaries are a lot more active in this story than the usual "wait until the end game for them to appear then be useless after". And I'm rather excited to show what I have planned for them.

Guest (Mar 7): That's an interesting idea… if not for the fact there's like a 0.5% chance of someone surviving something that even burned away their soul.

Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: Oh my dear friend… what makes you think it was an Ultra Beast?

thor94: Ash doesn't have the power to create wormholes, but it does look like he has the ability to manipulate them—which I have in my notes is going to be very interesting later on.

Anyway guys. Thanks, I really do appreciate the more specific reviews.


	8. Ch 8: Joey and Goliath

Joey recalled the old story of David and Goliath. It was an old tale that depicted the smaller and lesser people can topple giants. The reason why this came to mind was because he was finding himself in a situation that was similar to David.

"WWWWRRRYYYYY!" The loud sound caused Joey to instinctively grit his teeth. He couldn't stop his knees from trembling as a large monstrous creature came charging right for him.

"How did it all come down to this!?"

* * *

{Earlier that night.}

Being tough can be harder than it sounds. Joey knew this more than anyone. He was always looked down on by a lot of people most of his life, some of them were even part of his family, but the young ten-year-old knew that it was possible to be the very best and that sometimes required help from people who genuinely cared.

For example, there really was someone willing to believe in him. Ash seemed like a genuinely nice person and he didn't even deny him the chance to learn the secrets of Aura… well… he also didn't start on trying to teaching it to him, but in his defense it's been hard to find time to do so.

It was especially hard for him to do so now simply due to the fact he had been kidnapped by this group of unknown weirdoes.

'They got kidnapped again!?' Kaku half whispered, half yelled as Joey peeked out of some bushes to see Bill's Lab flooded with the weirdoes and their Pokémon patrolling around. 'I don't even know who kidnapped them this time and I can't move! Please don't tell me that this is going to be a recurring theme.'

"I have no idea what those last two words meant." Joey whispered as he lowered his head down. In all honesty, he was actually surprised with himself that he even got this far in the first place. His plan was simple after Ash got caught: he would wait until the very last truck was about to leave, snuck behind it and held on as it moved where it needed to go while he had Ash's bag pack with him and the Pokémon hanging on to him.

The ride thankfully wasn't as long as he expected it to be, and it just reached this person's lab. But if cartoons were any indication, labs always spelled bad news.

Joey had this image of a mad scientist in the usual coat lab, crazy hair, and insane glasses cackling like a mad man with trademark thunder and lightning in the back ground as his friends were about to be boiled in some bubbling green ooze. The ten year old shook his head after chasing away that idea. This seemed far more sinister than any television show he had seen.

"Rojo, you're like the sensing guy. Can you see where Ash and the others are?"

The 'sensing guy' gave a flat look to Joey before deciding to go on. 'Thankfully, Ash's aura was always one of a kind along with mine so it's pretty easy to spot him out of everyone else.' Rojo noted, with unusual hardness. 'The problem s that it's locked down as tight as Kaku's old base was. I don't sense a gap in their patrols especially with their night fliers keeping up in the sky.'

Joey looked up to confirm that last statement. He didn't even notice those flying Pokémon up there since a majority of them were Murkrow and Honchcrow. Okay, forget evil lab this was starting to look more like an upper level dungeon with high level monsters all around and he was leading a horribly under leveled party.

Man, no wonder people kept calling him a kid. Granted he was ten years old, he still kept comparing things to TV and Video Games, except this time he doesn't have a plot shield or infinite respawns to simply storm the castle and save the hostages.

Man he wished he could be a hero though…

Rojo's pseudo-telepathy rang out to catch Joey's attention again. 'I think there are other captives spread out through the area.'

So they weren't just saving his friends, but a lot of people? He just wanted to be a great trainer, not some jail buster—wait that sounded cool—dang it, focus Joey! Lives are at stake!

"Okay guys, what are our strengths?" Joey turned to look at the three Pokémon in front of him. His top percentage Rattata, Ash's Riolu, and Kakuna. Out of all of them, Rojo seemed like the most likely to pull this off, but even then that was a stretch. He believed in Ratata… when it was a battle. Rescue operations are admittedly new territory for both of them. And Kaku the Kakuna… other than being used as a blunt object, he didn't have much going for him.

Kaku wiggled to catch everyone's attention. 'Hey… maybe we can use the same idea Rojo, Pikachu, and I used to first save Ash and Lillie from my old gang.'

"What was that?"

'We found a secret passage underground. Though I'm not sure if human bases have that.'

Joey looked to Rojo. "Is there a chance you could detect something like that?"

The red Pokémon looked vehemently disappointed. 'Ever since that day, I've been trying to keep track of paths underground… and sadly there is a sewage system that does connect the lab all the way from the city…' Rojo buried his face into his palm and seemed to curse something about 'ordure' and 'again'.

"Sewage?" Joey felt sick just thinking about it. "Is there anything else?"

'Even if there wasn't, these guys have their bases covered. I sense Pokémon moving in the sewers, I'm willing to bet Grimers or Muk even considering their bodies.' Rojo almost seemed relieved saying that.

Oh what?! These bad guys were actually competent!? Joey inwardly sighed. There had to be something smart he could use…

'Maybe we should try again tomorrow?' Rattata offered.

'That's a bad idea! We are so not abandoning them!' Rojo hissed with a clenched fist.

'I'm not saying give up!' The normal type paled in front of the menacing teammate.

Ding ding ding! "Wait! Rattata say that again!?" Joey pointed to his Pokémon due to the fact his mind seemed to start formulating a rather unconventional plan.

The three Pokémon looked at Joey strangely before the small rat Pokémon repeated what he said. 'Try again tomorrow?'

"No, the other thing!"

The Pokémon shared a glance with each other before Rattata looked back at his partner. 'I'm not saying we should give up?'

Joey snapped his fingers and then pointed excitedly at his partner. "Yes! That's it! We should give up!"

All three Pokémon's eyes widened, but only two of them had jaws to drop in shock at the statement.

Joey's smile faltered as he rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah that didn't come out as well I thought it would in my head, but let me explain…"

* * *

He had one knee on the ground with his hand firmly stationed on top of his heart and his head bowed down in graciousness.

"Father, I have found someone of interest."

" _Speak, my brother. Raise your head to the glory of the Crusaders._ " Those that were part of the crusaders felt unworthy of the one speaking in their very presence.

"I am not worthy, Father."

" _No one is worthy, brother, but we press on in order to be worthy._ "

"Your words humble me, Father."

" _And you inspire us, brother. Speak! Then perhaps your voice will be heard by your people on the day they break their chains._ "

The High Crusader truly felt in awe of such kind words spoken to him. "I have found someone of interest among the chosen fragments. A young female, but she seems to have been touched by the land of the Great One."

" _A Pilgrim like you then?_ " He mused with interest. " _How did you notice this?_ "

"Our Angels reacted to her among the Fragments."

" _And… are you choosing her to help defy the false gods of this world?_ "

"I believe she will be most compatible, along with two others of interest."

" _Very well, I have other matters to attend to. Blessed be the righteous!_ " He cried out, only to be responded with a resounding chorus of followers chanting the last four words with the same vigor.

The High Crusader stood up and looked to his fellow followers. "Soon! The gods of this realm will die and the true one shall rise once more!"

They all raised their fist and chanted a strange and eerie sentence. "ĹɆǤͶд ҬӐԐᴚ₲ ꓱꜦ₮ ꞀꞁꜸᾟ ‖₳!"

The High Crusader walked out of the room and asked the one closest to him, "Where are the three?"

"We are preparing them. So far there has been no trouble. However, Brother Yales wishes to be the first of the converts."

"He is a noble man for taking on such a heavy burden. As for everything else, double the guards and increase patrols. When I first saw that boy, I saw his fear suppressed with calmness and eyes that were very good at finding what they seeking. I believe he was planning something."

It was at this moment, another cultist came running towards them. "Sir! We've found an intruder!"

"Hmm… or perhaps I was giving that boy too much credit." He mused to himself before turning towards the newcomer. "Who was it?"

"Some ten year old boy poorly sneaking towards the lab. What shall we do with him, High Crusader?"

A ten year old boy? That… is even more pathetic than I expected. "Put him with the others after checking him for Pokémon or anything else. I have to prepare our first three converts."

"ĹɆǤͶд ҬӐԐᴚ₲ ꓱꜦ₮ ꞀꞁꜸᾟ ‖₳!"

* * *

Joey struggled as he was dragged with little effort towards the inside of the lab. "Let go of me you cloaked wannabes!"

"Silence! Your impudence will not—OW!" The figure screamed as Joey kicked the guy in the shin as hard as he could.

"Ha! Take thaFFFmmmpphh!" Joey struggled as he was gagged and eventually led down the laboratory. He noticed that each room was transformed into some kind of make shift cell with trainers, their Pokémon, these weird cultists with their own Pokémon subduing their captives.

However, for some reason, he wasn't being placed with the other prisoners.

It didn't take long before Joey was brought into a larger room with this huge menacing machine that was so big that it took up more than half the room. He took that back, it didn't just take up space in the room, there were pipes and wires connected on top and bottom of the machine that made it look like it was part of the room itself. With how big it was, Joey felt positively miniscule at the idea if it fell on top of him, the machine wouldn't even dent after splattering him all over the marble floor.

"Joey!?"

The young boy looked over to see Ash, Lillie, and some red headed girl he never saw before standing in front of a large group of scary looking Pokémon he also never saw before.

It was then something fell from the ceiling and loomed over the ten year old boy. As he slowly turned his gaze, he saw a large Pidgeot glaring at him with eyes sharper than blades.

"Stand down." An orotund voice made the fully evolved flying type slowly back off and stand beside an even larger man wearing full suit of armor. Joey could not only hear, but feel the weight of the armor as the large knight came walking closer and closer towards him.

The young boy started to panic. (Alright, Joey, calm down. Things are looking bad, but at least you've got a backup plan that you thought through yourself!)

* * *

Meanwhile…

'This plan was not thought out well.' Rojo sat on the driver's seat and noticed his distinct lack of leg and arm length to both reach the pedals and grab the steering wheel and stick shift.

A somewhat silent, but none the less panicking voice hit the mini jackal's ears. 'Rojo, help! I think one of them is getting back up!'

'You were supposed to—oh wait. You can't move. Okay this was definitely not thought all the way through!' The small red Pokémon jumped of and picked up a nearby pipe.

* * *

Joey could feel heat all around him despite the dark and coolness of the night due to the fact the intimidating knight was now walking towards him. (What's taking them so long?!)

The knight seemingly scoffed before looking towards Ash. "I honestly overestimated you, boy. If your best plan was having a mere toddler save you, then I believe you are crazier than you appear."

Joey shouted through the gag that sounded a lot like saying that he wasn't a toddler.

"Now then, Bill," It was then that the ten year old boy noticed where the knight was looking towards. A black right eye from physical trauma, dirt and dust all over his face and lab coat that had a few rips here and there. The guy looked like he went through the ringer. But Joey would never forget how his eyes widened, how his entire being froze with terror when the supposed knight looked his way. "Begin the process."

"T-This is mad and you know it!" He stammered out a response only for a nearby Arcanine—odd, Joey didn't recall them looking so bloodthirsty—snarled at him.

"Do not forget your friend is still under our custody." The knight said nothing more than that as if that was enough to shut the one named Bill up and do as he was told. And it was.

Bill clenched his eyes shut as he begrudgingly started pressing down on a console. The machine lit up, showing lights flashing from within the gargantuan piece of machinery and metal.

One of the cloaked cultists walked to what looked to be a capsule on the far right side of the machine while his Pokémon, a Scizor walked onto the far left side of the machine. Both capsules closed up as soon as the two went in.

"Your sacrifice shall not be in vain, brother." The Knight spoke up as the machine started humming with rising power.

"W-What's going on!?" Misty cried out as the machine thrummed higher and higher, making everyone but the four watched on with uncertainty and horror.

However, Ash was different. Because he was in tuned with the natural forces of the world through Aura, he saw something forcefully merging the two souls together. It was like all of the rotting dead forcefully rinsing from the ground to scream in horrible song.

The machine finally died down, but everyone looked over to Ash gasping for breath and falling to his knees.

"A-Ash!?" Lillie worried for her friend, momentarily ignoring the danger around them to see if he was alright when clearly something else was going wrong.

Suddenly, the large machine started to open up a gate in the very center. Everyone not of the cult watched in horror as some kind of freak of nature walked out of the machine.

Plating red and hard as a Scizor, the body shape of a human man, large red bug wings, and black eyes that had yellow stilts in them; this was the abomination that stepped out of the machine.

"Beautiful…" The knight spoke out as he walked towards the insult to all rules of nature. The creature seemed to look at the knight before slowly going down one knee and bowing. "Brother Yales, you have shown us true devotion. We are humbled by your dedication and you shall be remembered long after the stars are snuffed out."

"W-What was that!?" The girl with fiery red hair stared at the creature with horror and bafflement. For those few sane people left, all notions of what was normal just became brutally murdered executioner style with a rusty halberd.

"An Acolyte of the Order, sworn to help usher the end of the gods." The knight spoke almost like a mad man, correction. He was one.

Bill pointed with horror. "Don't you see what' you've done!? The first machine spliced human and Pokémon DNA on accident! Forcing them together like… _THIS!?_ Is nothing short of an insult to all life!"

"Insult? No! We demand justice against the lie called life!" The knight threw his hand out. "I could argue about ideals for years, but I grow weary of petty squabbles and grandstanding. Now that we are sure the machine works, we can finally begin our baptism. Send in the angel."

Those left sane didn't understand what the knight was speaking about. However, they noticed several figures bring in an orb and place it in the capsule where the Scizor was. While the door started to close, the orb started shinning and seemingly growing.

"W-What!? H-Hey!" Lillie shouted as some of the guards suddenly grabbed her shoulders and started walking towards the opposite capsule where the cultist walked into.

"Hey!" "Lillie!" Misty and then Joey both screamed before their guards forced them.

"I-I won't do this to an unwilling participant!" Bill tried to stammer out before the Pidgeot jumped over to him. In a blink of an eye, his talons were mere inches from puncturing the scientists' soft neck and ripping it out like wet tissue.

"Then by your refusal, we have no reason to keep anyone here." The Knight stated darkly before raising his hands and signaling—

" **Stop!** "

They all turned towards Ash, slowly getting back up even though more guards and Pokémon started to aim their hostility and weapons towards him.

With all attention on him, Ash turned towards the Knight. "I'll go first."

"Ash—"

"You needed someone willing right? I'll go instead!" Ash locked eyes with Bill and away from the horrified look on Lillie's face. "It doesn't matter who goes first, right?" The young aura user then turned towards The High Crusader.

Now, the high Crusader hesitated. Again his gut feeling was telling him not to let the boy in if there was a chance he was planning something. However, the last time he did that, it was just to hide a ten year old boy. The boy was nothing but hot air and there was nothing to worry about.

"Let him go first." The crusader huffed as Ash passed a look to Joey before being led into the other large container.

Ash turned around, finally sharing a gaze with Lillie as she looked on horrified. The boy could only give her a nervous smile before the hatch cut off her view from him.

Joey started to think. Did Ash get what he was doing? Or did he trust him to have a plan? Dang it! Where was Rojo and Kaku! They should have been here by now!

Bill gulped and started to start the procedure.

No sooner than he did, a powerful scream from the Pokémon container as something seemed to thrash around and actually dent the machine on the inside.

On the other tube, Ash noticed that like before no one could see him. This was his only chance! He applied the power of Aura to his muscles to rip off the hand cuffs they put on him. As he noticed the machine starting, he felt a powerful spike coming from whatever thing they had placed in the opposite end.

Ash thought fast. Aura was basically a sub energy that could be tied to any element: metal, rock, sometimes fire, water…

And electricity.

Ash placed his hands on the machine and started to focus. Breaking out of here was one thing, but he still couldn't help everyone since he was once more out numbered. He would have to trust that Joey had a plan since he still detected Rojo away from the lab.

But for now he had to focus on this predicament he got himself in. Instead of using his Aura to somehow protect himself from the machine, he was going to do something else.

He was going to put _more_ power into the machine to overload it. Ash started focusing his own aura into the rising energy of the machine.

He didn't notice that because he was forcing so much of his aura, but both his eyes had turned purple.

Outside, the machine whirred to life with a sound that was nothing like the first time. Cables snapped off, glass broke, electricity sparked in places people were sure electricity wasn't supposed to be in. The machine started sparking and the console Bill was controlling the machine in was currently malfunctioning if the fly sparks, miniature explosions, and uncontrollable needles were any indication.

"What is going on!?" The knight roared as he walked towards to the controls.

"I-I don't know!? Everything is overheating—get down!" Bill yelled as he ducked for cover before another explosion from the console came out that short-circuited not only the machine but also disabled all power within the lab.

"The boy! He did have one more trick up his sleeve!" The knight glanced over to the pod where the young man was. His anger was rising in one part towards the boy and the other towards himself for underestimating his prey. "Get him out of there and kill him!"

Even as everyone started to move and react to the sudden loss of power, Joey heard something faint in the distance and formed a small smile under the gag that was tied to his face.

The ground shook violently before muffled screams and yelps came from beyond the walls.

"An earthquake?!" The red head shouted out loud. However, the idea of an earthquake soon became questionable as soon as strange sound, muffled at first, came in closer that clearly wasn't part of an earthquake.

 _Honk Honk Honk Honk_ _ **Honk!**_ _Honk Honk Honk Honk_ _ **Honk!**_ _HonkHonkHonkHonkHonkHonk_ _ **Honk!**_

BOOM!

No one ever expected a damaged truck to come busting through the walls at high speeds, honking a familiar tune at maximum volume as it plowed through unsuspecting chumps and their Pokémon except Lillie and the others, but that's what happened.

Two things jumped out of the driver's seat as the large vehicle sped right into and crashed into the fusing machine and straight through another wall.

"Finally! You guys! You both took forever!" Joey yelled out, but had forgotten that he was still wearing a gag. So instead of those coherent words, he just muffled and spat a lot before realizing he was still silenced.

'Where's Ash!?' Rojo asked as he held both Kaku and a bent lead pipe with dried blood on it.

'Why did you use me to slam on the accelerator!?' Kaku yelled out before Rojo noticed Lillie and broke her restraints.

Some remaining cultists and their Pokémon went after the red fighting type. However, they all stopped as they saw a shrieking Kakuna tossed into the air. One unfortunate soul had only looked up—just to black out as something small and red blurred his sight and he found himself kissing the floor so hard it cracked when he tried to hug it.

Lillie noticed the red fighting type looked particularly angry and quickly went to Misty to help her out.

"What is that Pokémon!?" The red head stared as the red Pokémon was decimating Pokémon that seemed larger and bulkier than him.

"His name is Rojo and well, he has an anger problem."

'Lillie!' The blonde girl turned her head towards the gaping hole where a large lab wall once was. Her heart soared when she saw Pikachu running up to her. Thank Arceus, he was alright!

'RUN!' The little rodent yelled as he ran past her with sweat profusely falling from the electric type's body.

Lillie tilted her head in confusion before she heard the sound of a bird squawking. Well, it was a bird squawking, but it sounded more like a banshee swearing to the skies for unstoppable, bloody vengeance.

That was then Lillie realized… they didn't just take Pikachu away from her; they took _all_ of her Pokémon. And that included…

'I've seen insects run faster than you, rodent!' The voice of anger cried before suddenly turning her eyes towards Lillie. 'You! I saw you with Pinsir! Where is that bastard!?'

Maybe it wasn't completely wise to bring back a strong, uncontrollable Pokémon back to full health. However, Lillie had no time to react as she started sprinting after Pikachu. "Why don't you shock her!? She's just a flying type!"

'That is a monster in the guise of a flying type! My shocks did nothing to her!'

'You call those shocks!? I've felt more pain on the pebbles I've slept on, rodent!' The Fearow somehow heard him.

Pikachu looked back at the new monster of his dreams. He wasn't paying attention to where he was running and bumped into then bounced off something. As he looked back up, his heart stopped for a second and saw another towering flying type that emphasized his size as a rodent.

Lillie turned and slid to a stop as she saw the Knight's Pidgeot right in front of her. It said nothing as it started to raise its talons.

'Lillie, duck!'

The blonde Alolan did as she was told by her partner and no sooner than she did, Fearow swooped and rammed into Pidgeot when she would have struck Lillie.

"Hey! Lillie right?" The girl turned to see the red haired girl, misty and she was being followed by several water Pokémon. "I see your Pokémon found you too! But we have to get out of here! Everything is literally falling apart!"

"Wait please!" The two girls both saw Bill with Joey and Rattata come up to them. "They have my friend captive in the basement! I only did what they told me or else they would hurt her!"

Misty took that in and nodded before everyone look at the hole in the wall. From their perspective, everyone else was fighting with the cultists caught by surprise and taken out by Rojo and Kaku's reckless driving. "With what happened, it sounds like the prisoners are now fighting back and trying to escape. I'll go help out with Bill and the other prisoners; you two help your friend trapped in the machine."

At this point, a Golbat was thrown past them and through a wall that was actually left untouched until that moment.

"Unless that red Pokémon is busy…" The red head kept a mental note to look up the species of that particular red Pokémon.

Out of some nearby rubble, a red claw shot out before throwing away the rubble around it. "HHheeerreettticccc!" It roared as the abominated fusion looked onto Rojo.

The rage of the fighting type faded for a second. 'What the heck!? It's like someone forced two souls together in a horror movie!'

'Alas! I hath reached thy far corners of the Reverse Dimension where all sanity slowly succumbs to the maddened planes even entropy hath abandoned!'

'Kaku, you bohemian. I need to concentrate beating up on people, so stop talking.'

'WHY DON'T YOU STOP USING ME AS A SHIEL—'

'I'm charging at him now! RAAAAAA!' Rojo cried out as he rushed for the monstrosity with a lead pipe and Kaku as his shield.

"HHHHeeeerrreeetttiiicc!" The creature yelled as it also ran towards to enter combat against the red Pokémon and his partner/ally/armament.

"What happened to him?" Lillie asked as they saw Rojo being on the defensive against the strange half Pokémon, half human monstrosity. The sight almost made her remember when her mother… now was not the time!

The scientist clenched his fist. "They were the ones who asked for this, and I never again want to use this technology anymore! Get your friend out before more of the lab's structural integrity fails!" He looked towards Misty. "Come on, I know a way to the basement." They made their way out of the exit as more attacks started flying around the area.

Soon after, Lillie and Joey went their way past all the chaos and fought to where Ash was. However, as they made their way…

"Joey, where did Rattata come from? I don't remember him coming with Rojo and Kaku." The girl recalled her memory and only saw the purple normal type after the truck came crashing through the walls when he was knocking away some stray cloaked cultists away from Bill.

"I hid his container before I came in as back up for when things hit the fan!" Joey responded as they arrived in front of Ash's tube. "I'm so glad to think that ahead!"

A small thought popped into the emerald eyed girls' head. "But I thought they checked us for items, how did they not find your Poké Ball on you?"

"Don't think about it too hard! Rattata, use Iron Tail to break the door!" Joey changed topics a little too quickly there.

The common Pokémon did a masterful spin as his tail started to thrum with metal energy. He swung his empowered limb with all his might—only for his limb to bounce off and make him cry in pain.

"D-Don't worry, Rattata! You can do it!" Joey was quick to support his fallen Pokémon.

Pikachu facepalmed. 'Aww screw this!' He jumped and also made his tail empowered. However, unlike his previous classmate, Pikachu actually performed the attack nicely and tore through the door.

"Good job, Pikachu!" His trainer cried out as they were able to push the door away and spot the aura user so exhausted that he was on sprawled on the floor.

"We gotta get him out of here!" Joey and Lillie quickly slung the tired teen on their shoulders and tried to help him up, but before they could raise him up, they were distracted by the sound of two thrown items thrown at them like war javelins.

"Uuhhh…" Rojo and Kaku bounced off the wall and both landed near their trainer.

Lillie and Joey paled as they slowly turned their attention over where their best fighter was thrown from.

"Heeeerreeettiiicccss…" The monstrosity hissed as it slowly stalked over to them.

"Oh crap!" Joey cried out as he pointed to something _behind_ the abomination: The High Crusader and he looked pissed.

"Words cannot begin to describe how much you've set us back. My great leader may be forgiving… but I am not!"

Rattata ducked and placed his hands over his head. 'I don't wanna fight the two of them!'

It was rather unlikely and impossible, but it happened anyway: Rattata's cry for help was answered.

But it wasn't answered by a kind being. That orb the cultists brought? It was meant to contain a certain creature they could better shape under their control and with how Rojo crashed a truck into the machine? The force of impact broke the container and freed the now angry and pissed off creature.

A towering, muscular, and bug-like Pokémon came out of almost nowhere and punched both the knight and the monstrosity out through the lab itself with only one giant limb. It stopped and then it started to… flex its enormous muscles and cry out with a sound that silenced the chaos around them.

"WWWWWRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYY!?"

However, young Joey didn't seem to realize the gravity of this situation. "Whoa! Hey! We were lucky!" Joey smiled as he looked to Lillie, only to suddenly drop his smile when he saw the Alolan girl look absolutely horrified.

"A-Another Ultra Beast?" The girl gasped as the large red Ultra beast slowly turned towards the trio. She recognized that creature; it was in one of the data files of when Nebby first opened a tear towards the Ultra Dimension back in Alola.

Joey gritted his teeth. Ash was down and so were his own Pokémon. Pikachu wasn't nearly strong enough to protect Lillie and the same went for him and Rattata.

He was out of his league again, always trying to 'shot an arrow to the moon' as they always told him. But now? They were screwed in every single way imaginable.

 _So, Joey, what's your strategy?_

Joey blinked when he looked at Ash's unconscious form. Why did that memory pop up just now?

 _I only won because I was able to use their own weight against them in the island._

Ash… he was strong, but he never relied on that. Wasn't that one of the very first things Ash tried to teach him? Adapt to the situation?

"WRRRRYYY!?"

"Lille, take Ash and the others out of here!" Joey quickly let go of Ash, scooped up a rock and threw it at the Ultra Beast's head.

The bug like Ultra Beast with huge muscles didn't even flinch, but Joey grabbed Rattata and shouted again to the creature.

"Hey, you muscle-brained, poopie head!" It was rather unfortunate that Joey's ability to insult people was as small as his body size. "I bet you couldn't… do anything right if you wanted to!"

"Joey!? What are you doing!?" Lillie cried out. The Ultra Beast turned back towards Lillie and Ash and its face started glowing orange at the sight of them.

The youngster knew he had to grab the posing idiot's attention some—hey wait a sec!

"Ohh look at me! I'm posing dramatically!" Joey gave his best impression of a mocking flex just like the Ultra Beast did. Suddenly, the creature stopped walking towards Lillie and Ash and seemingly turned back to Joey.

Joey shouted a few more insults and did more mock posing. The posing actually did seem to seal the deal as the bug like Ultra beast started moving towards the smaller boy.

'J-Joey!'

"Don't worry! I've got another plan!" That what he shouted out from his mouth, the inside of his brain was all kinds of panicking and he did his absolute best not let his legs shake.

He then pointed his butt at the creature and immaturely wagged it in front of him and slapped it several times. "Come and get me, sucker!"

"WWWRRRRYYYYYY!?" The creature flexed its muscles before flying towards Joey with uncanny speed.

The youngster and his Rattata yelped before they both ran for their lives.

'Joey! Why did you make him come after us?!' The purple normal type screamed as the two ran back into the lab through all the fighting in an attempt to escape from the much larger and more intimidating Ultra Beast.

"Ash and Lillie couldn't stop it! And I had a plan that's just crazy enough to work! We can pull it off I know we can!"

'Can we really!? J-Joey! I'm scared!'

The youngster gritted his teeth, grabbed his cap and tightened it to his head as it flipped it to the right side. Memories of everyone looking down on him came back flowing to his head, but he pushed them back into the corner of his mind where they belonged. Now was not the time.

"I know! I'm scared too! But I'm more afraid of not growing up! Of always being on the sidelines! I'm tired of being a joke! I'm scared… but I'm horrified of not even trying! Rattata! I know we can do this!" Joey spoke from his heart as he looked at his partner.

The scared little rat paused only in thinking as they continued to run among the other fighting and screams as those they passed yelled in panic to avoid the seemingly untouchable Ultra beast after them. "Can we really do this?"

"… I know we can! I'm going to be the greatest trainer ever and you'll be the best Rattata ever! I swore it to my father to do so!" Joey yelled out among the chaos, making him and Rattata run faster as the bug creature shrugged through everything like it was nothing.

Joey glanced back to Rattata. "And thanks to Ash, I have a plan—turn right here!"

The two darted into a room as the muscular Ultra Beast crushed the floor they were previously in. The shock wave caused the ground to level down and blew away the two through a broken wall into the room they were going in.

The Ultra Beast smashed what was left of the wall and noticed the sounds of someone going down further into the stairs among all the scattered clutter.

"WWWWRRRYYYY!?" The Ultra Beast busted through the floor without much trouble, entering into the basement that was filled with pillars and some crushed machines.

"HEY!" It turned over to see Joey, just standing there, fist clenching and sweat beating down his brow. "I'm right here you big, stupid dummy!"

The boy gritted his teeth and stood his ground. It was finally time to enact his plan, but still. He just hoped to Arceus it would work.

Huh, wasn't this sorta like that one story he heard? David and Goliath?

"WWRRRRYYYYY!" The Ultra Beast flew right for Joey with his fist thrown back.

"How did it all come to this?!" Joey yelled out as he jumped out of the way. However, like before, the force of the impact blew away Joey like a speck of dust as he rolled into a pillar.

The Ultra Beast rushed for Joey a second time, but it was at this point that the youngster, while injured, gave a small smirk.

There was something that was dropping itself right on top of the creature from beyond. While its strength was so amazing that it could barely feel pain, there was the fact that Ultra Beasts are still affected by the rules of Pokémon moves.

And some moves could bring down the strongest of Pokémon if used correctly.

"Rattata, Endeavor!"

The injured Pokémon screamed with all his might as he made contact with the Ultra Beast from jumping down from the highest point he could climb on the pillars. A devastating burst of energy echoed throughout the basement as The Ultra Beast looked heavily injured from within.

Joey forced himself up and pointed. "Now Rattata! Hit the joints of his legs with Quick Attack!" Despite the creature's overwhelming torso, the fact remained that it only stood because of four, stilt-like legs that looked less stable than the other parts of its body.

The little rat did as he was told, speeding faster than he ever ran to ram into the joints of the larger Pokémon. It felt like he was slamming his body into a steel wall even with how much they did to weaken the creature, but still he could actually feel the legs of the creature buckle with each impact.

The Ultra Beast cried out as it finally toppled over and fell to the ground as Rattata sped back to Joey's side.

Joey and Rattata stared on with nervousness as a second passed with the mighty Ultra Beast not moving from their assault. Then another second passed in which the two novices actually seemed to have a rising feeling of hope.

The third second passed and they both started whooping into the air and cheering like they got an A on a very hard written exam.

"We did it! Oh my Arceus, we did it!" Joey caught Rattata in his arms and started doing a merry jig.

Unfortunately, the two were so caught up in their dancing that they didn't notice the pillar surrounding them were cracking… a lot.

They also didn't notice that the Ultra Beast was slowly getting back up.

"WwwwrrryryyyyyY!YYYY!?"

"Aww phooey." Joey and Rattata spoke at the same time as they saw the Ultra Beast rise while frozen in the position they were both in.

The two barely got out of the way of the powerful punch that sent a shockwave on the weakened pillars. The impact caused more pillars to crumble and lose stability, making the place shake even worse than before.

"We gotta get out of here!" Joey and Rattata ran as the place literally was falling down on them.

The muscular Ultra Beast tried to go after the two, but his legs still twitched from the pain on his joints and froze him as a large boulder fell from the ceiling and on top of him. It didn't do that much damage to him, but it did make him fall again to the ground and soon, more and more boulders started to fall on the creature.

Meanwhile, Joey ran as fast as he could, but it was getting hard to avoid the falling debris. "Rattata, go on without me! I'm just slowing you down!"

'I'm not leaving you, Joey! Thick or thin, we're in this together!'

The two eventually made their way to the stairs—as a large boulder came from the ceiling and crushed their original way up.

'W-We gotta find another way!'

"Do we have time to!?" Joey looked around frantically as most paths were blocked already. The two heard a loud cracking sound come from right above them as a large and heavy piece of ceiling fell right towards them!

The two screamed in peril as they hugged each other, but something quickly attached itself around Joey's waist and pulled him out of the way of the boulder and up back over the broken stairs.

Joey opened his eyes, and saw that it was Ash's scarf that was tied around his waist. He looked at the direction of where he was being pulled and a smile spread across his lips as he saw Ash rescuing him from another falling object.

"Got ya!" Ash said as he helped Joey and Rattata down. Joey quickly noticed everyone was back up, including Kaku and Rojo. Lillie and Pikachu also were there still.

"I-I thought you guys left!" The youngster gasped.

"I woke up after you left, Lillie told me what you did and I tried to scan for you. Great job, Joey! I sensed what you and Rattata pulled off!"

Before Joey could even smile at the praise, the ground shook violently and the floor behind the group started to crumble.

"Let's talk about this later, everyone move!" The aura user cried out as he led everyone out of the crumbling lab. It was chaotic, but the fact the lab was crumbling forced everyone to stop fighting and escape from the building collapsing on top of them.

Despite some close encounters, the trio and their Pokémon escaped the fallen lab and noticed all the other trainers and Pokémon a good safe distance away.

"W-WWHHOOO!" Joey screamed out to the sky. "I did it! I actually did it! Now I'm going to sleep!" Then he promptly fell into the grass tired out of his skull from all the running and the times he got blown away. Rattata also fell into darkness with his partner with how attacking the Ultra Beast seemed to hurt his body more than his target.

"You surprised a lot of people today, Joey." Ash and also Lillie smiled at the younger boy. And to think, they didn't expect great things off him when he asked to come along. Perhaps they judged him too quickly…

"Ah?" Ash looked up as he sensed something. "Hey, I recognize this Aura…"

Lillie and everyone else followed the boy's gaze as they looked up the moon… then promptly paled as they all saw a large, menacing Fearow heading their direction.

'There you dastards are! Tell me where Pinsir is or I'll rip out your lungs through your orifices!' As if to punctuate this threat, she actually used Horn Drill on her beak to signify she was not exaggerating in the slightest with that declaration.

This struck a new fear in the group's heart and made Ash pick up Joey—and Pikachu and Rojo pick up Rattata—before they all ran with all the remaining energy they had left from the mad flying type.

Luckily, they were the last people to get out of the crumbling lab. Misty and Bill were able to evacuate everyone else that was captured by those strange men. And everyone looked on at the sight of some young kids and their Pokémon being chased by an angry Fearow. Despite, how scared they looked, some people started to laugh at how silly the scene was before all of them.

It was… one way to end their nights of captivity and battle.

* * *

Ash had just finished his late night shower and decided to get out to the balcony of his room in the Pokémon Center.

It was rather hectic, but he and Lillie were finally going to meet with Bill in the morning to discuss what they were here for after much effort trying to calm down the Fearow after them. As for the ones that had done the mass kidnapping, any trace of the cloaked figures and their partners disappeared. It seemed like even the mighty creature that caused all the rubble to collapse on itself had disappeared as well.

For such a short journey, there was rarely ever a dull moment. Hopefully things would be much smoother on their way back to Pallet Town.

He opened the door—

"I can't believe he did that!"

The boy froze at the sound of Lillie's voice coming from the balcony next to his. Yet he could tell that she was angry, but why?

'Do what?' Pikachu was there as well? Odd, was he not paying attention to when Ash slightly opened the door?

Should Ash even be listening to all of this?

"He did it again! He did something dangerous to make sure we were safe! Does he not care for his own safety!?"

Oh… was she talking about when he offered to be transformed first? It technically was the cave thing again wasn't it? Lillie must have been angry again for being so reckless.

'But from what everyone else said, he had a plan.' Pikachu tried to defend the guy. 'And to be fair, they sorta work.'

"That's not the point! I-I…" She sighed deeply. "Rojo told me about Ash's mom and dad."

Ash's eyes widened. It was a sore topic, but why did Rojo tell her? Not that he didn't want her to know about that, and Rojo was free to talk about what he wanted, but he still felt a bit betrayed that he didn't get to express it himself.

"Rojo also told me about how… he tries really hard to help people because… he doesn't want to feel lonely." Ash stayed silent when he heard that. Rojo really thought that of him? He wanted to help people sure… but… maybe he did help people because of that.

Did that mean that he only helped people because he was selfish and wanted to feel less useless not because they had a problem? Come to think of it, even though they had faced problems in this journey… weren't they caused by him in the first place?

When those Kartana first attacked, it was because somehow, he brought them, wasn't it? Then, because he and Rojo were in the same car with Lillie and Pikachu, the two Pokémon's fighting caused the car to crash down and set Lillie back further and cause all those other events to happen.

Also, it meant that if he wasn't there, that Absol would still have been…

His uncle taught him to learn to forgive himself, but how could he forgive himself when he does seem to do nothing but cause trouble for others when he doesn't mean to? He shouldn't be blaming himself for everything, he knows that! But… it was hard not to feel guilty when he knew he could have done more at that time.

"He just is so reckless! I know he wants to help others, but he should think about himself too! We all care about him and don't want to see him hurt like the rest of us!"

Lillie was right. Ash probably was just being reckless after all. Maybe he wasn't even really helping others, but trying to prove himself that he wasn't causing pain to others when he really was.

The disheartened boy looked to the ground and made a motion to silently close the door. He heard enough.

"I-I… I wish I was half as strong as he is."

Ash froze as he heard Lillie such strange words. He had to mentally check if he was hearing correctly before Piackhu's voice came up.

'Huh? What do you mean by that?'

"… When my dad disappeared, my mom… she… she basically lost it. Living with her afterward was a nightmare and for years all I did was put up with it all that time. It was only until my brother ran away first and that I found out she was doing something absolutely horrible to a friend of mine that I finally acted out." She gave out a forced out chuckle as if she was trying to laugh at herself.

"Even when I was _finally_ free of her, other people came to my rescue and helped me. _Other amazing_ people made me realize who I really was and eventually they did almost everything in saving my mom and me when I got captured by my mother again. The only reason why I could do things… was because all my life I've had other people cover for my mistakes. And even now? When I'm finally on my own? I'm still depending on amazing people to look out for me. I'm a burden to literally anyone I meet." It took a lot for Ash to not go out and tell Lillie she was wrong.

He only stopped because Lillie kept on talking about him. "And then there's Ash. He always _tries_ to make up for his mistakes. No matter what, he wants to help people and he goes out and does something about it then succeeds… I'm so envious of him."

She shouldn't be.

The two humans seemed surprised when Pikachu made a scoffing noise. 'Yeesh, you humans really have a lot of drama, don't you?'

The two young teens had to admit it: Pikachu had summed it up in a few words perfectly.

'You shouldn't be worried though.'

They both felt confused hearing the electric type easily dismiss Lillie's plight.

'Look at me, I always thought that I was better off on my own, yet here I am partnered with you, that Ash guy, his stupid looking partner, Kaku, that Joey kid, and his Rattata.' Pikachu wisely said nothing about the Fearow that was in the same party as him. 'I mean, sure I could do without the potential danger every twice a week, but I actually like being with you guys. Without you all, I probably might have been worse off. My point is that I've been proven wrong before at what I thought was a fact, so if you think you're useless, just give it time, you won't be later on.'

"Pikachu…" Lillie started. "How could you be so sure?"

Even though Ash wasn't directly there, he could feel a smug smile coming from the electric type by the sound of his voice. 'Well does someone useless go out of their way to ask a senior trainer like Shego how to train Pokémon? Yeah, I totally saw you ask Shego for training tips while on our way here. You probably would have used them on me if not for—you know.'

"O-Oh."

Pikachu's ears perked up and another smirk slowly came to his face. 'Why not ask Ash how to use Aura?'

That shocked the listeners to this conversation.

'Joey is going to check if he can use Aura, why not you? If you had powers like Ash then you definitely won't feel useless and who knows? You can pay Ash back for saving his neck for the times he's helped you.'

"I-I…" The girl continued to stammer as she struggled to coherently string together not only words but thoughts on this suggestion.

'I'm sure he'll agree, after all, he heard everything we've just said.'

The amount of shock and fear Ash felt at that moment was so great, he swore for one moment every part of him lost all trace of color, including his own blood and aura.

"A-A-A-Ash?" It sounded like Lillie was also feeling the same amount of horror as the young boy.

He was caught; there was no other choice than to fess up. Ash hesitantly stepped out of the balcony where he swore he heard Lillie gasp even though she cupped her hands over her mouth as some futile attempt to stop all the words that just came out of her.

"H-Hey Lillie? N-Nice night out?" Ash awkwardly offered.

"Y-Yeah… it… it is…" The girl then glared at Pikachu and not so subtly whispered, "WHY DIDN'T YOU WARN ME HE WAS THERE?"

The Pikachu shrugged his shoulders. "I only heard him recently when you stopped talking, so I just assumed he must have been listening to us."

"I-I am so sorry for eavesdropping!" Ash flushed as he actually prostrated himself on the other balcony to the blonde, emerald-eyed girl.

"W-What! No! I'm sorry you had to hear all of that! I must have sounded pathetic!" Despite how dark it was, you could see how red Lillie's face was. To be fair, both young teens had faces so red, Rojo's skin looked pale in comparison.

"No no! Lillie, I swear you weren't at all!" Ash quickly said as he quickly stood back up. "Who even goes so far from their own close friends and home they've grown up all their life just to help their mother who had wronged them for life?! You're amazing, Lillie! In fact, I should be apologizing for everything I put you through! If I wasn't there, you wouldn't have been attacked by Ultra Beasts and you would have found Bill earlier."

Lillie stared aghast at the boy, not believing her own ears. "Are you kidding me, Ash? If you weren't there, I never would have been able to even talk to Pikachu let alone bond with him so well! Heck, I probably would have been caught with Bill and turned into a freak of nature if you weren't there and if you didn't have Joey following us around to save us all!"

'Will you both stop yelling? Some of us were trying to eavesdrop in peace! Oh, and you'll probably wake up some of the people who are sleeping.' Rojo jumped to the rail next to Ash.

"R-Rojo! You're awake!?" The boy looked to his Riolu.

The red Pokémon didn't seem at all fazed. 'Hard not to be, but anyway, don't you two see how stupid it is to pity yourself? Everyone's a loser, so the most anyone can do in life is try to be less of a loser.'

Pikachu pointed to Rojo. 'I'm with fist-for-brains on this one.'

'Shut it, you malfunctioning battery.'

'Point is,' The two didn't stop glaring at each other while Pikachu continued on. 'None of us are perfect, but we all change. Just make sure we change for the better.'

For a while, everyone remained silent after what Pikachu said. Then… Lillie started giggling and then she started laughing.

"I-I'm sorry!" She tried to calm herself down. "I-It's just… I-I just realized how bizarre it was for Pokémon to give me life advice and I c-couldn't s-sto-p-p bwa!" The girl went into another fit of giggles.

'What? We can't be philosophical just because you think we repeat out species names all the time? Racists.' Rojo quipped before Ash elbowed him lightly.

"But it is kind of funny." Ash let out a few chuckles himself.

It was at that moment that they all started genuinely laughing. Despite how tense things had been earlier that night, they were more focused on their own inner dramas… which… was really, really stupid and funny now that they thought about it.

"Thank you, Ash." The Aura user blinked as he looked back to See Lillie had calmed down and gave him a serene smile. "I really do mean it. I've really enjoyed our adventure, and I'm glad I can be friends with a lot of amazing people because of you."

The young teen returned a smile. "You too. I have to thank you Lillie, for even giving me my first real adventure across a region. I met a lot of fun people thanks to you as well. And hey, if you really want to learn Aura, I'll be glad to teach both you and Joey."

'Well, now we're done with this little, group therapy session,' Pikachu huffed up. 'Even though I've seen even more things that have probably traumatized me in my life in this day alone, I'm beyond tired and want to sleep on a bed. Why haven't Pokémon invented beds yet?'

With that, the two Pokémon returned to their respective rooms, leaving both Ash and Lillie looking at each other.

"See you tomorrow?" Lillie asked hopefully.

Her response was rather simple but she knew what it was the moment she saw Ash smile back at her. "You bet."

The both left the balcony feeling a lot better that night.

What they didn't know that Joey was in the balcony beneath them, rubbing his head in deep thought before snapping his fingers.

"Oooh! So that's why Shego called them lovebirds!"

* * *

 **{Author notes}**

 **Aaahhh the power of Youth!**

 **Before I go any further, I have to address something I did with Lillie on this chapter.**

 **Now, it is implied that Lillie had lived with Lusamine while she 'was not in the best mental state' since she had even dressed her own daughter to look like Nihilego. Also with the mom being obsessed with beautiful things during that period might have affected the girl's psyche more than the game implied.**

 **Yes, I am allowing her to be as strong and independent as she wanted to be at the end of the game. However, I don't believe despite her best efforts, there are still scars of her time with her mother alone.**

 **Back in Alola, she never noticed this because she was focused on caring for Nebby and trying to avoid her mother.**

 **However, in this new journey of hers, the focus is centered on her and herself. She doesn't have someone to take care of besides herself and she isn't trying to run away from someone.**

 **This journey is her proof that she can be just like her friends, who in the game could do pretty much the regular things a ten (Or eleven/twelve) year old could do like, battle and defeat an evil organization, capture a potential deity, be rich as all kinds of heck in the span of a few days. (Nintendo, what the heck do you think ten/eleven/twelve year olds are capable off!?)**

 **However, once more, she is not like them and it is made very clear with how she sees Ash as doing the same things her friends did back in Alola: doing all the heavy lifting while she just tagged along.**

 **It affects her that she probably isn't living up to what she wanted to be and that reflects of when she lived her life with Lusamine, who dressed her up as she saw fit. Lillie probably has anxiety problems when certain expectations aren't met, because when she was with Lusamine, if expectations weren't met, bad things happened. (I assumed with how messed up Lusamine was before Lillie slapped her.)**

 **It's why in this story, I made Lillie a little more self conscious and have somewhat more anxious and self-loathing. I believe that after years of trying to please her mother, she's more aware of the negative affects she causes to others than the positive.**

 **Ash is a bit different because unlike Lillie, he grew up in a loving but small community. His guilt comes from the fact, he thinks his dad doesn't come back because he was the one who made them lose his mom. His friends try to tell him otherwise, but they can't explain the fact that he never came back.**

 **I always wondered how having no father really affected Ash. There is an interesting psychology of people growing up without parents because they're somewhat damaged. (heck nearly every story has protagonists without parents or one) I personally took my own liberties with this version of Ash, because I always noticed that a lot of Aura Ash stories don't really develop Ash as a character other than what they assume is cool and heroic. The only thing they seem to do is make him smarter in battles and less oblivious to romantic advances.**

 **I don't actually hate this. They are free to write whatever they like. I just think there's a bit of a waste to write a good character people can relate to.**

 **Ash is the butt of everyone's joke for almost never winning a league, but what does he do? Does he quit and give up? No matter how far it is, Ash always gets back up and tries again—and that is brilliant.**

 **He never gives up.**

 **All the crap everyone puts him through, even the writers, but they still never make him miserable, cruel, cold, or cynical. He still loves adventuring, is willing to help other people, and doesn't even think about giving up his dream.**

 **That is why Ash has always, and will forever be my favorite Pokémon character of all time, not matter what people say. He never gives up, and never lets failure change him for the worse. Something I wish I could do.**

 **It's one of the reasons why I'm not really a fan of the Adventure mangas, even though everyone claims that it's a million times better than the anime for its darker themes and more badass trainers.**

 **I've read most of them, and I just can't… relate to any of them. They all have this special talent that they seem born with, super elaborate backstories, and can solve problems without much effort. Their Pokémon are strong, and the only problems they have trouble are when it comes to Pokémon battles.**

 **I only remember Ruby and Sapphire's personal journeys and then they focused their relationship with each other. (I don't hate it. I just noticed that I barely recall how they resolved their own personal problems in acting like the opposite gender.)**

 **I need to say this in my rant: DO NOT TAKE MY ADVICE!**

 **I mean it, I'm pouring out my own opinions and that's it. I've given you reasons why I think certain ways, but that shouldn't mean you should take them as your own.**

 **Form your own opinions, if you don't like Ash then that's fine. If you like the Manga, that's also swell, but don't take my opinions as fact because I've explained them to you. Those were my reasons for thinking that and you shouldn't let them dramatically change your opinion unless you are sure you can agree with them and are not agreeing to them blindly.**

 **Enough about Ash and Lillie though, I think Joey deserves some focus after what he did.**

 **Joey does quite well for his first battle against Buzzswole (If I didn't do well in describing which of the Ultra beasts this was.)**

 **His character is rather fun to think off. He is just like Ash and Lillie in that he is looked down on, but not by himself but others.**

 **Also, hey! There are Pokémon fusions in this story/Pokemorphs? Is that what they're called? I recall there was a manga about people transforming into Pokémon but that was just weird. But yeah, they're actually playing a part in this story.**

…

 **Crap. I can't think of much else to say without dragging this out even longer.**

 **I guess I'll cover this in my next notes/rant.**

 **Anyway, if you actually read all of this, thanks.**

 **Thank you for reading, and see you soon.**


	9. Ch 9: Rest For The Wicked

"Alright, so!" Ash clapped his hands together in front of a group of people and Pokémon. "You two want to learn about Aura, right?"

"You bet I do!"

"I am determined to learn more about this."

Joey and Lillie agreed respectively.

Ash waited and saw all the other Pokémon, except Fearow who was perched up on a tree eyeing them from a distance, nod in agreement to learning the skills of an aura user.

"I'm going to ask one more time because I only know what my uncle taught me and what was taught to him by my dad and his teacher before him, and so on. It's not going to be easy and it's dangerous if not done correctly." The heterochromia boy warned carefully to everyone that wasn't Rojo.

"How can I be the best if I take the easy route?!" Joey passionately cried out as Rattata stammered, but also showed his enthusiasm in order to suck less.

"There are still Ultra Beasts and those mysterious people who are a greater danger to us! I won't stand in the sidelines any longer!" Lillie passionately stated.

'I just wanna learn how to do this so Rojo will look less important in comparison to me.' Pikachu smirked as Rojo silently leered harder at his frienemy.

Ash nodded at their confirmation of determination.

However, the trio of trainers and their Pokémon were being watched by Professor Oak, Bill, Daisy Oak, Lusamine, and some group of Aether foundation attendants on top of a hill some distance away from them in Professor Oak's backyard.

It was not mentioned, but they all had returned back to Pallet Town safe and sound. When the trio met Bill again, he was already making plans with his assistant, Daisy Oak, who was rescued by him and Misty back at their lab, to stay with Professor Oak after seeing that they had received calls from him the past few days in captivity. (And due to the fact their lab was damaged and not yet in repair.)

Lillie explained the full reason why she needed him, and he was grateful to assist the children who had helped saved him and his assistant from those vile men.

Also, since Lillie and Ash were keeping a close watch, Rojo and Pikachu didn't end up blowing Bill's van and they took a whole day getting from Cerulean to Pallet Town. After a night of rest, Ash was finally letting the two into how to use aura.

"I've heard rumors of the fabled aura users, people capable of doing super human feats somewhat similarly to psychics," Bill noted as he looked on the three with piqued interest. "I have never seen what kind of training they possess, let alone imagine."

"I met Phoenix when he was a young man," Professor Oak added in. "By then he was he was a traveling vagabond already mastering his powers. Hmm, I'm surprised that with him living here for so long that I never asked him how he was trained."

His granddaughter giggled. "Think about it: in ancient myths and folk stories, Aura Knights were akin to wizards during ancient times, using their fantastical powers to help those in need, I can only imagine what kind of sacred rite they performed to earn their mantles."

The idea made everyone compelled to stare at the young man some distance away from the hill they were on. They were about to witness the secrets of a near extinct practice that allowed the everyday man powers much like that of a Pokémon and potentially beyond. How could they not pay attention and possibly learn from this event that could change their lives?

Back down below, Ash had finished inspecting everyone and clapped his hands together.

Rojo had this evil smile on his face with a dangerous sadistic glint in his eyes that everyone noticed as Ash inhaled deeply.

"WELCOME MAGGOTS TO THE FIRST DAY OF YOUR LIFE THAT ISN'T A WASTE OF EVERYBODY ELSE'S TIME!" Ash's voice boomed like thunder across the peaceful town as he was using Aura to project his voice like that of Arceus himself. "FROM THIS POINT ON, YOU WILL BE WHAT YOU ALWAYS WERE MEANT TO BE: DIRT ON THE GROUND! AND UNTIL I MOLD YOU TO BECOME FINE AND RESPECTABLE AURA GUARDIANS, YOU WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH!"

The number of jaws dropping among the watcher's side and the trainer's side was rather sizeable.

"A-Ash?" Lillie blurted out in fear with a nervous hand pointed up.

"THAT IS SENSEI TO YOU, MAGGOTS! IN ORDER FOR SCUMBAGS SUCH AS YOU TO EVEN GAIN THE ABILITY TO GLOW IN THE DARK, WE'RE GOING TO FIRST STRENGTHEN YOUR PHYSICAL STAMINA AND YOUR ABILITY TO CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS! NOW I KNOW SOME OF YOU AREN'T AFRAID OF ME, BUT THAT DOESN'T APPLY TO THE GOOD TAUROS FOUND HERE!"

That last sentence got everyone raising their brows in confusion. Professor Oak knew there was a herd of Tauros found on the outside of his lab due to his research, but what did Ash mean by 'afraid'?

'Where's Rojo?' Pikachu paled as he soon noticed the red Pokémon had long disappeared from Ash's side.

The ground beneath everyone started to shake violently and the sound of angry and hysterical cries filled the air. Everyone slowly turned their heads to see a herd of stampeding normal types raging towards Lillie, Joey, Rattata, Pikachu, and Kaku. They seemed horrified of something, and that's when people on the hill saw Rojo riding on top of the lead normal type cackling like a mad man with a Red Focus Blast in his palm.

'LISTEN UP, YOU HEAVY CHUNKS OF MEAT! IF _ANY_ OF YOU SLOW DOWN OR TRY TO AVOID THOSE FIVE IN FRONT OF MY TRAINER, I WILL PERSONALLY MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTIME YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES YOU WILL BE CRYING TEARS OF HORROR ABOUT WHAT I WILL DO WITH YOUR HORNS AND WHERE I'M GOING TO USE THEM!'

None of the normal types dare ask what the little demon meant by that, and they all focused towards the horrified five.

"Y-You're kidding right, Se-Sensei!?" Joey stammered towards his teacher/friend.

"DOES IT LOOK LIKE I'M KIDDING, DIRTBAG!? GET TO RUNNING OR BE RUN OVER!"

'He's gone insane like in my worst nightmares! Joey, run!' Rattata cried out as he bolted ahead with fear, not unlike the time he was being chased by the bulky Ultra Beast.

Lillie picked up Kakuna and grabbed Joey's hand as she and Pikachu ended up running for dear life.

Everyone on the hill just gawked while most watched in horror seeing someone subjected to something downright traumatic.

Professor Oak gulped and quickly made his way down the hill towards the Aura Guardian in training. "Ash!"

Ash turned to Professor Oak with a smile. "Oh, Professor, do you need something?"

The professor just stared as the young man focused on him while ignoring the cries of sheer fear coming from his friends, and the maddening cackles of Rojo who seemed to be firing several Focus Blasts around Pikachu's vicinity.

"I-Isn't t-this a bit _intense_ for training Aura?" The world famous researcher tried to reason with the boy.

In response to this, the young teen tilted his head, seemingly oblivious to his red Pokémon shouting like a lunatic to run faster as he threw more Focus Blasts around them. "What do you mean? Uncle Riley and my dad started my training with something similar to this, but both times it was a heard of migrating Ursaring and Uncle Riley made me go through a herd of Onix. This one is a smaller and slower group, and there's more room for evading and maneuvering."

Somehow, even through the sounds of chaos, and Fearow's uncontrollable laughter at the sight before her, everyone on the hill heard Ash's casual statement of how life and death situations where the _first_ exercise to Aura Training.

A thought crossed all of their minds: they were starting to see why Aura Users were so rare if _this_ truly was their way of being trained.

Aura Users were stupidly insane!

"A-Ash!" Professor Oak took a handkerchief and wiped the sweat of his head from the nervousness and delicacy of the situation at hand. "Ms. Aether and Joey aren't as well versed as you in Aura! I _strongly_ suggest you appropriate your training regiment for them!"

"I thought I was. I mean, I could have been attacking them as well just like my dad and my uncle…" Ash looked back thoughtfully.

The renowned professor imagined the more capable boy doing something similar as what Rojo was currently doing. He shuddered at the thought and knew he had to convince the surprisingly oblivious teenager not to potentially kill his freinds.

Professor Oak carefully grabbed both of the boy's shoulders. "My boy, you… you… might cause more damage to my lab if this continues!" Unfortunately, that was the best excuse one of the greatest scientific minds could come up with.

"Oh, I'm so sorry professor. I didn't consider that!" The young boy said which made the older man surprised at how that poor excuse actually worked. "I'll have to rethink everything in that case, which also means I'm probably going to have to stop those Digglets from completing that pitfall trap for later today…"

Professor Oak sighed in relief. Perhaps he had saved lives today.

Well… that was until everyone else heard a loud crashing noise in the distance that was so loud that it muffled over a dozen cries of fear.

Ash turned around at the sound and blinked. "Huh. They started that pitfall earlier than I thought."

* * *

After much more convincing from Bill and Professor Oak, Ash decided to completely tone down how he and Rojo were trained in Aura.

"Alright, sorry about that guys. I can't actually teach you what my teachers taught me without harming potentially anyone else. I'm going to have to cancel all that training regiment I planned with Rojo."

'It's BS!' The little red Pokémon stomped his foot angrily.

"Ash… your apology… should be… for something else." Lillie gasped for breath as she was being treated by a lot of Aether Foundation attendants on a personal comfy sitting couch with cool drinks and fans.

Joey, on the other hand, was just seen exhausted and lying on the grass. He was noticing how the heiress was being treated in comparison to him who just felt like a rock on the ground. "In life, none are created equal…. Alas, misery is all that awaits us for those who are born lesser…."

'Hey! Being poetically depressed is _my_ shtick! If other people take that away, I'll have no defining character trait left! Don't take that away from me dang it!' Kaku enraged at his stolen material.

Ash tilted his head. "I need you all exhausted because that is one of the ways for me to open up an Aura."

Some of the attendants taking care of Lillie froze while Joey weakly pushed a hand up and tried to cheer before it dropped into a ground like a Goldeen on dry land.

Ash stepped forward and closed his eyes before they snapped back up open, one eye glowing purple and one glowing blue. "Anyone not exhausted please take a safe distance away. I was warned that this next process is lethal to those who didn't willingly exert all their energy."

The young man didn't need to persuade them much as they seemed to already start moving away when the boy's eyes started glowing.

"U-Uhh A-Ash?" Lillie asked since she was regaining her strength much quicker than everyone else.

"Don't worry. I've seen my father perform this before, and Rojo's here in case something goes wrong." Ash motioned his hands apart as a trail of purple light followed after his palms. The young boy slammed a palm into the ground and two lines of energy shot out to encircle everyone else left behind.

Rojo spoke up at this moment. 'Just a fair warning: this might tingle a bit.'

Before anyone could react, the circle shot out several lines towards the five currently inside the symbol. It ran through the grass before reaching their bodies and shot up towards their eyes. When it reached their eyes, all four of them shout out a light through their eyes before a blinding flash enveloped the area.

When the light show died, Ash placed his hands back together and exhaled deeply. "That should do it."

The five, except Kaku, slowly got up, feeling much more refreshed, but their muscles were still aching and fatigue was still with them.

"Alright guys, close your eyes." Ash smiled excitedly.

Everyone did so, and then despite closing their sight, they saw everything. They saw the energy of every living thing, from trees to Pokémon flying by in the sky; they saw the outlines of everyone watching from the hills and how Rojo and Ash's aura stood out with their vibrant different colors. They sensed their own, and in comparison to the duo, it was much less vibrant than the two teachers.

"Welcome to the world through aura!" Ash's silhouette raised his hands towards the area around them.

Joey excitedly jumped for joy, fatigue be darned, he had super powers! "THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!" He opened his eyes and looked to Ash. "When can be able to throw energy spheres!?"

"I give it like two to ten years max?" The boy responded, instantly killing Joey's smile like a criminal being executed.

'Says the prodigy who mastered it in two weeks.' Rojo looked up to his partner.

"Hey, you know my first one was laughably horrible. Plus Uncle Riley said I learned faster because I learned it a young age where it's easier for people to absorb things and there was the fact that I had better teachers who knew what they were doing," Ash then clapped his hands. "Alright! Now that you can sense energy, we're going to have to practice how to focus it so you can properly sense the area around you! Rojo and I learned this next part by being stranded in the middle of Iron Island and a random forest, and being told to come back home before nightfall with nothing but the clothes on our back!"

Joey dropped his jaw and Lillie was very close to doing that herself if she wasn't so frozen with shock.

'We should get them to do it still.' Rojo bitterly stated.

'Screw you, closet sadist.' Pikachu called out.

'Shut it, fat sloth.' Rojo was swift on the banter.

The two Pokémon growled at each other before Fearow descended in between the two. 'Knock it off. If you two were under my care, I would _kindly_ tell you that I dislike petty squabbles.' No matter how elegant that sounded, Pikachu and Rojo were very aware of how she enunciated certain words as a sign of warning.

The two Pokémon paled when the evolved bird flew in and both were very quick to make their way behind their trainers.

Ash coughed to bring all attention to him. "Alright! So, since we can't go with the usual training method of Aura Guardians," The boy didn't really seem to notice the sigh of relief coming from both Lillie and Joey. However, they soon realized they may have acted too soon when they saw the boy pull out black, thick blindfolds up. "So, the next thing we're going to do is blind you for the next 25 hours!"

"Uhh, what's the extra hour for?" Joey asked nervously.

"That's a surprise." Ash and Rojo smiled for different reasons.

The two gulped at the answer. Perhaps they should have taken Ash's warnings closer to heart before he started training them…

* * *

Over the clear blue skies of night, there was a private jet on their way towards Kanto.

"So are the reports true? There have been sightings of Ultra Beasts in Kanto?" Within the plane, there were a select few people discussing their sudden deployment.

"Unfortunately. But that's not the worst part, some reports are showing that are people behind these types of attacks." A calm and collected voice responded to the question.

"That should be impossible though. Only the Aether Foundation has enough data and funding to even create Beast Balls to subdue an Ultra Beast." The owner of this voice sounded older, but the tone still carried a lot of experience with it.

"What if there was another way to subdue them? There's so much we don't understand about the Ultra Beasts that we can't rule out such a possibility."

"That's a very good point, a disturbing one to boot." The owner of the voice paused and looked towards the other. "You seem troubled. Is something the matter?"

"N-No. It's fine. It's just… I'm a little sorry we couldn't enjoy our stay in Alola longer than we hoped."

"That's alright, Chief. The buffet was lovely."

"Yes it was—wait. We hadn't had gone there yet…"

There was a cough that came in quickly. "Enough of this, we should probably reassess the data Interpol has already scanned on the current captive Ultra Beasts. The more we know about them, the better."

The collected voice held in a giggle as the other agent walked up and out in a somewhat rushed manner. However, that feeling quickly died down as they recalled something from some of the locals.

"Wait. Wasn't a friend of the Champion in Kanto?"

* * *

Bill was examining the clipboard in his hands as he reviewed all the collected data.

"And this was from your initial scan?" The curly haired inventor asked the older man.

"I know your forte is more focused on software and machinery, but I do remember the 'accident' you had." The Professor carefully worded. "You must have had notes into how Pokémon and Human cells and DNA can be forcibly spliced together."

The younger man sighed. "I wish that accident never happened. However, on both occasions, it was a machine. According to the story, it happened to her almost naturally. It's almost scary how compatible Ultra Beasts are if they could willingly fuse their bodies with different spices so easily."

Professor Oak looked beyond the window as Lusamine was currently being served tea by Daisy. "Though, one has to consider: what exactly is the Ultra Dimension?"

* * *

"Alright, I think it's time we do this. It's been a long time coming!" Lillie pumped herself up despite the fact she still couldn't see due to the fact she was wearing a blindfold.

'Is it really the time to do this now?' Pikachu asked while they were inside Lillie's guest room in Professor Oak's lab.

"We haven't had a proper chance to do this because of everything else! We might not have another time to do this!" The blonde girl explained to her partner. "Today, we will give you a new name!"

'I suggest, Rodent.' Fearow noted as she perched on the roof outside Lillie's room.

'That's something I'd expect Rojo to say.' The electric type responded quickly.

'Have you given me a reason not to think of you as one?' The Fearow answered as she checked her wings.

"Oh right, we also have to discuss our… agreement with Fearow." The Alolan was a little nervous being almost alone with the intimidating Pokémon, however, she assured after their initial meeting that she saw no reason to crush them and force her to return to her gang.

'Despite my best efforts to forget, I was defeated by Pinsir. Rather than go back, it would be far wiser to bide my time before returning to extract my vengeance!' The porch of the window cracked underneath the grip of Fearow's talons, but the powerful avian didn't seem to notice this. 'Though I do admit having a new name would be rather interesting… Human, give me a satisfying name that will strike fear into the hearts of those who fear me! …Lest I shall find my talons dipped into yours.'

Lillie was totally not sweating and she did not gulp at how Fearow seemed to narrow her eyes at her. (She even had a blindfold and somehow she felt more sensitive to her eyes narrowing!)

Thankfully, she knew that Pikachu didn't like the names mostly due to the fact she kept trying to name him after scientific terms. So, her next plan was to use folklores as an inspiration, since their vivid and mystical tales always captured her interest besides all of the research she surrounded herself with while in Alola.

Keeping this in mind, the blonde girl did her best to remain calm. "H-H-Howsh aboff—" She shook her head quickly while Pikachu hid behind her. "How about Vayu? It's the name of a wind deity from ancient mythology in the eastern lands."

'Vayu… a wind god,' The flying type slowly relaxed and let the wordplay into her mind. 'I like it. Short but powerful.'

Lillie and Pikachu sighed a breath of relief as the flying type seemed pacified for now. However, the blonde Alolan turned to her first partner. "Which leads me to your name. How do you feel about being named after another folklore? One about a thunder god?"

'Ooh. What is it?' The Pikachu asked with obvious interest.

"Raijin, in ancient times that was what Raikou was called and in those times he was considered a deity of thunder in Johto."

'I like it! Raijin!' The newly named Pokémon smiled—not that Lillie saw this mind you—at his new name.

"I'm so glad you do!" The girl spoke as she stood up but then didn't see that as she stood up, she was about to hit a shelf.

Raijin winced at the sound his trainer made when her head made contact with thick wood. 'Lillie? Are you alright? … Lillie? … If you don't say anything in the next few seconds, I'm allowed an extra serving of ketchup!'

"… Ow…"

'I'm not counting that as a real word. Whooo!' The electric type threw his arms up in the air.

Fearow rolled her eyes and looked up to the sky. There was something strange in the air that made her feathers rustle. It was disconcerting due to the fact that her feathers only did this before a storm came soon. Yet, as she looked at the clear and calm skies, she couldn't imagine the weather changing so quickly.

* * *

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine Uncle Riley, really." Ash smiled towards his uncle on the screen.

'It is a relief to know that despite the trouble, you're still in one piece, Young Master.' Riley's Lucario added in.

"Still it sounds like you've found yourself in quite another predicament." Riley told the boy with a rather tired but not at all surprised smile. "It seems like no matter where you are, fortune seems to always be less than favorable with you."

"You keep telling me that, but I'm always surprised at how mundane everyone else's life sounds when compared to mine." Ash spoke back.

Riley and Lucario seemed to give out a nervous half-laugh, half-sigh at the boy's response. "Well I'm just going to chalk that up to genes. But do be careful, Ash."

"Thanks," The boy's smile lowered as he looked at the screen. "… What exactly is my last training before I can be an Aura Guardian?"

Riley's smile also lowered as he put on a dour but solemn look on his face. "It's one of the reasons why I sent you back to Kanto, Ash. For the last leg of your training, you must go see the world on your own."

"B-But how will I know when it's done?" The raven haired boy asked.

"I can't tell you that," Riley answered quickly. "That's something that can't be taught, only learned."

The boy sighed. "Alright."

Riley saw how bad the young boy looked. It was then a thought popped into his head that might help cheer him up. "By the way, you-know-who seemed rather surprised when they called here and found out you were in Kanto without you telling them."

The raven haired boy titled his head he stayed like that for a long and thoughtful second before his eyes instantly widened to the size of saucers. "Crud! I forgot to call!"

'Ash!'

"Hey, you forgot too!"

'Yeah, but you're the smart one out of the two of us!'

Ash groaned at that last sentence. He was seen as the responsible and mature one between the two and this was something that was the opposite of that. "I gotta call them back! Thanks, uncle! See ya soon!"

"Be safe, Ash!" The two Aura users waved goodbye as the screen blacked out and Ash frantically pressed the screen to make another call.

As the machine rang, the young boy half hoped that his first friend wouldn't answer his call so he could call at a better time.

Unfortunately for the boy, the call was picked up and the sound of a girl giggling was the first thing that hit his ears as the screen opened up.

As soon as her face appeared, Ash bowed his head down shame and raised his hands up in prayer. "I am so sorry! I forgot to tell you I was in Kanto!"

"Raise your head, Sir Ketchum." Elegance was a word that both described, but couldn't capture the girl on the other side of the screen. She had deep blue hair and gorgeous sapphire blue eyes and currently, she was wearing an expensive and extravagant nightgown. The room behind her had nothing that looked to be worth less than a fortune, but despite all this, she began to give a kind and surprisingly formal laugh. "At times, I forget that when you commit, you tend to be laser-focused on your task. But I am delighted to hear your voice again."

Ash did so, but not before feeling this need to rub his head. "I'm still sorry I didn't get to call you, Pri—I mean, Via."

"All is forgiven." She clasped her hands together. "Your uncle was kind to tell me that you had been in your homeland for a bit. Did you have any adventures there? And if so, would you kindly regale them to me?"

'Hey, Via!' Sometimes it was rather hard for a red Pokémon to catch the attention of others after they wore off their initial surprise. Yet for Rojo, he supposed he got used to it much quicker than another would expect.

"Hello, Sir Rojo, a fine evening to you as well. It is also fortuitous to see you."

Ash petted his best friend before looking back at the obviously loaded teen. "I would love to tell you, but let me combine a group call. I… didn't exactly tell the others as well."

Via found herself giggling again with great animated energy at her dear friend. "You never cease to surprise me, sir Ash. It has been a while since I've made a call to Dawn and the others as well."

* * *

"Okay, I'm finallyOw!" Joey clutched his shoulder after grazing the doorway. "Well, I was close. How are you, buddy?"

'Should I be using my other senses?' He was still understandably freaked out at the prospect he could still see things with his eyes closed. If anything, he still kept expecting something horrible to happen to him while in this state.

"What? No! We finally have super powers, Rattata! We're one step closer to prove to everyone we're not to be underestimated!"

'Yeah… that… Listen, Joey… are you sure I'm the right guy for this?' The purple Pokémon asked. 'I mean, I'm starting to think that we might be over in our heads with this.'

The young boy paused. "You think so?"

'We-We got attacked by some freaky bug guy with muscles on his arms that were five times bigger than us! I didn't sign up for that!'

"B-But we won against him!"

'We got lucky, Joey!' Rattata yelled back at him. 'Things have only been escalating ever since we met these guys! And it only feels like it's going to get worse! We should leave while we're ahead!'

Joey felt the weight of those words hit them. On one hand, his friend had a point, but on another… he could tell there was something off with his friend… the aura… something was stirring in his friend's soul. And even without it, was he… afraid?

"I can't run away! We promised to see it through!"

'You did! I went along with it because I wanted to change, not go into one suicidal thing after the next! I… I quit!' Rattata yelled as Joey heard the sound of cloth ripping and he suddenly felt his Pokémon's aura shoot out of the lab.

"Wait! Rattata! Come back!" Joey still kept his blindfold on as he ran out, trying to focus his aura on honing in on his partner.

As he bolted out of the Professor's house, the clouds around the sky started to rumble with distant thunder.

Yet, as he ran, Joey wondered why he was keeping his word in staying in the first place? Maybe it was because, deep down, he had finally found a place where he and his friend weren't seen as jokes. Their last adventure proved it. They had faced a creature far beyond them in almost every aspect, yet _they_ were the ones who were victorious that night.

Maybe there was another reason. One of the reasons why they were able to do that was because of a tip a genuine friend gave them. Joey found friends in them, real friends! And… he knew… he wasn't really that smart, or strong, or tall. But he did make a promise with his dad that he would make him proud. And maybe it felt weird to say, but this _was_ the path meant for him and Rattata! It was in his bones!

"Rattata! Wait!" It was then that Joey had sensed his Pokémon had finally slowed to a stop.

'J-J-Joey?!'

"Look, I-I'm sorry! I didn't really talk to you about staying with Ash and the others—"

'Joey!?' The little Pokémon screeched in panic.

"Hey, I'm trying to apologi—"

'Joey, for the love of Arceus, remove your blindfold!'

No sooner than he said this, it was then Joey realized… _there was a second aura_ in front of his Pokémon.

The young boy quickly removed the cloth and half wished he put it back on. In front of him was something small and green, yet smiling with a dark look on his face that was a demon despite how simple and harmless it looked.

"Greetings, fragment. My name is Creed, the former Celebi." The ground burst open with several giant thorn-armed roots that rose to the skies like pillars and whose shadows dwarfed the two young ones as lightning flashed in the storm clouds above them.

"Answer me this instant. Where is Mew?"

Once more, thunder cracked the skies.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Hey guys sorry for the long wait. It was kind of hard to figure out how to end this chapter.**

 **It was pretty slow, all things considered, just a little more character building all in all. I do feel the need to say this since I'm not sure if anyone will remember such an obscure character, but does anyone recall Dawn (one of Ash's companions) had a doppelganger similar to how Ash has Ritchie and some other not so memorable people? I have...well I made a strange little thing when planning something out.**

 **This chapter jumps around a lot and I apologize for that, but I was just trying to show everyone slowly coming together. I actually had a few more scenes, but I thought it was too much.**

 **Now, I have a lot more planned. But I don't exactly know where to start explaining, and if I did it would go on too long.**


	10. Ch 10: Into the Abyss Pt 1

**{Author Notes}**

 **Sorry for this being super late, I have a job now and it's significantly cut my free time down since I need money.**

* * *

On the top of Mt. Silver, snow plummeted down with the same power of a storm without thunder. At the top of this very mountain, someone prostrated themselves despite not properly wearing clothes to survive this harsh weather.

A figure walked up to the prostrating person and kneeled as well. "Father, we have found the last Apostle."

The one in front of him still continued to prostrate himself until he slowly but surely stood up.

"It is time," the voice said with finality. "Send Tiono and Krai to assist Creed in this endeavor. I had seen a vision: the False Scion is making their way to prevent us from collecting the final apostle."

The follower bowed again before making his way down.

Father had looked up towards the sky, where a large tear suddenly opened up that seemingly came from nowhere…

* * *

Joey didn't quite know how to react in this particular situation.

"Must I repeat myself? Where. Is. Mew? Where is the False Scion?" Being ensnared in a large vine by a potentially evil legendary Pokémon is something not many people would expect to happen to them and their Pokémon, yet here they were. It was easily as scary as the time he faced that giant bug creature.

"M-Mew? As in the legendary Pokémon? That one? D-Don't you legendaries know where you guys are?" The youngster had more questions than those he just spurted out, but he seemed to struggle to speak the rest of them due to the fact the vines coiling around him and Rattata were applying more pressure to make their bones creak from the inside.

"There are only two options I gather from that answer. You either are telling the truth, or you are hiding something from me." The talking Celebi looked at his hand distractedly, as if that was more worthy of his attention than the two people lives he held captive. "Despite my powers, I am in a hurry. Tell me what I need to know, or you are about to find out how time travel can be used for torture."

"I-I don't know! I promise! I don't know where Mew is!"

Creed stopped looking at his hand in a bored manner and floated closer to the boy. "I don't think you're lying," thunder boomed in the sky. "But I can tell you're hiding something…" Joey remained silent as Creed touched his head and made him look him straight into his eyes—oh something was wrong with those orbs. Should they look like they were swirling like water? "Are you… an aura user?"

"W-What's an aura user?"

"Oh they are rather simple on paper. People who can have abilities much like Riolu or Lucario… interestingly they have a rather staple ability of having a sixth sense. Like…" a vine brought up the blindfolds Joey and Rattata were using right beside Creed. "being able to see without sight."

In that moment, one could have sworn that Joey's mind and heart could have been clinically proven dead with how suddenly they stopped at the comparison.

"I believe the words were, 'Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor'. How easily people tend to forget that those words actually mean that lying is a sin." Creed reached out for the blindfolds and played with them a bit in his arms.

He looked back up and his face attempted to smile by stretching his mouth far beyond the levels of uncanny disfigurement. " _And guess what happens to sinners, young boy?_ " There was another undertone with that horrible face. It was as if Joey had unknowingly flipped a switch.

A light of purple shined and only grew in the span of less than a second. Creed was blindsided as a purple sphere of energy exploded on contact, and forced the vines carrying the two younger captives to drop to the ground with all the grace of a dancer with two broken legs. Yet that did little to damper their utter relief when they both recognized that energy sphere.

"Ash!" Joey cried out as the aura user, who seemingly had ran after them all the way from the lab, stared down the little green Pokémon floating out of the smoke without much damage.

The time traveler opened his eyes to first look at Ash's figure standing right before him, ignoring the red little runt standing right beside him. As the grass and psychic took in his person, the chilling smile returned and somehow with greater intensity than before which was amplified by his pupils shrinking to the point they were barely seen in the dark night.

"My my. You have grown." the Celebi started as the vines around him started to regenerate to a state as if they were never attacked in the first place. "You have a long overdue session with our beloved father, aura user."

Joey noticed Ash slowly clenching his fists so hard they looked like they were twitching. "You…. You're that Celebi from all those nights ago." Ash extended his staff as Rojo tensed into a fighting position. Rojo was nervous; this was the Pokémon that supposedly almost took Ash away and killed his mother. After all these years, here he was—his mother's killer—a legendary Pokémon of time travel was right in front of him.

"Joey, leave." The young boy stopped staring and quickly left as soon as the words reached him. He picked up his partner before scurrying back towards the direction of Professor Oak's lab.

A little later, he was surprised to see Lillie and her Pokémon heading their way towards him.

"J-Joey? Where's Ash? I just sensed you and him run out of the house and—what is that?" The blonde Alolan trailed off as she looked ahead and saw her friend and what her brain was recognizing as a mythical Pokémon.

"Lillie, stay back!" Ash yelled without even glancing back towards her. "Get Joey and the others out of here! Tell Professor Oak to evacuate!"

"Oh?" Creed glanced over towards the research lab on the hill after seeing Lillie. "How fortuitous, it seems that I'm closer to my target after all."

'What are you talking about?' Rojo raised his brow but never lowered his stance at that weird comment.

Thunder boomed in the skies once more as Creed started chuckling to the red Riolu's response. With a snap of his fingers, vines busted out of the ground behind the entire group.

"Guys!" Ash flinched and turned back to see if his friends were alright. This proved to be a horrible mistake since Rojo then screamed out Ash's name and pushed him out of the way—before being swatted away from a vine that would have hit the raven haired boy. Creed closed the distance while Rojo was still mid air and slammed an elbow so hard into the red Pokémon's stomach that a visible shockwave was seen and created a sizeable crater when the fighting type hit the ground.

Ash quickly tried to strike the legendary, but even as he brought the empowered staff right on top of him—what the aura user hit was empty air. The raven haired boy sensed something behind him, but was quickly sent flying by a blast of psychic energy.

"They say aura users are given powers like super strength!" Creed shouted right after the psychic blast but noticed that in Ash's right hand, while he was still being blown away by the blast, was one end of his scarf. Mid air, Ash pulled on the scarf with all his might. Creed had one second to look around him to realize that the boy's scarf had been stretched around him then suddenly collapsed around the small green time traveler like a mummy.

However, even when the aura coated strings threatened to cut him into pieces of leaves, Creed showed no signs of feeling the strings dig into the surface of his skin. Instead he continued talking.

"And Super Speed!"

Without even blinking, Ash suddenly lost sight of the twisted time traveler as his scarf just tried to strangle empty air. Had he stopped time? And was there a shadow cast right above him?

Right above him, Creed had thrown his right arm back and it sharpened into a pike ready to pierce the boy right in the face. The aura user's instincts kicked in as the grass type threw his spiked arm, Ash stabbed his staff into the ground to quickly slow his momentum and allow him to tilt his head away from being impaled. It didn't stop his right cheek getting cut from the close dodge.

Creed watched the boy skip like a stone from the abrupt stop he tried to pull. "Ha. I've always heard that aura users were supposedly 'chosen' ones."

He snapped his fingers as more vines rose from the ground to pin down Ash similarly to how Creed was tied up not too long ago.

The small temporal moved his head slightly back as he saw Raijin, Vayu, and Rojo performing different attacks towards him to save their ally. He threw his hand out and a psychic power held over the three attacks and rebounded back to their original users. As the attacks made contact, the green Pokémon made the roots surround and grab everyone, including Lilly, Joey, and Rattata and pinned each one of them into the dirt.

"But it seems…" The twisted Celebi closed in to Ash's face and darkly whispered, "This isn't a universe where you can overpower your problems." He was playing with them the entire time.

Creed backed off and floated around in an easy going manner. Everyone tried their best to get out of their restraints, but for every root they broke, four more quickly replaced it. "Now, I am supposed to take you to my leader, but I believe that I'm starting to see this super cliché of letting potential threats live for us to regret later on. So let's just skip all the foreplay and go straight for the kill!"

Thunder boomed as Creed maniacally laughed. The vines surrounding everyone started increasing their pressure, everyone wailed in pain as the roots started coiling further and further—

With burst of air, all of the vines popped like balloons and released everyone from captive. Everyone but Creed quickly glanced in one direction directly behind the previous wall of plants blocking their escape.

"Ahh, the guest of honor finally arrives." Creed mockingly laughed as he too slowly glanced in the direction everyone else was focusing.

There was a small, pink, feline-looking creature with blue eyes and psychic power covering him.

Ash was the first to react when he saw the figure—flashes of memories almost a life time ago filled his mind. "Y-You… you're the Pokémon that I met all those years ago…"

Creed looked over to the more experienced aura user after hearing that. "So you did met Mew? That does explain why I stumbled onto you when I expected to see him. Which means he had something to do with that sneak attack so long ago… bah." The grass type slowly descended to the ground where grass slowly started to grow as the small creature walked towards Mew. "I do believe it's time that I finished what I started almost eight years ago."

Mew's eyes glowed to the threat and in one instant, everyone that Creed had defeated was now back in front of Professor Oak's lab when they were so far away a second ago.

"W-What happened!?" Joey turned sharply back towards the building he ran out.

Lillie figured out what happened. "T-That was Teleport, Mew must have moved us here."

However, this made Ash snap his head back towards where they originally were.

Were, was the key word here. It had not even been thirty seconds, but the area they were previously in was somehow replaced with scores of broken, giant roots and craters of varying colors and sizes that were spread across the field.

Despite all of that, the two legendaries were nowhere to be seen. Ash scanned with aura to track them. He soon found the exercise was a fairly bad idea. The two auras he was sensing were overwhelming and overlapping with each other. To say they were all over the place wouldn't be an exaggeration since their auras were located in different areas without seemingly moving. Perhaps creed was using some time related power? But how was Mew keeping u—wait. Something wasn't right. It was faint, but was he sensing two more powerful but different auras?

"Ash, what's that?" The sound of Joey pointing at something caught the boy's attention back towards the lab.

* * *

Boom!

Creed landed with one foot on top of a vine he had raised up. "You showed up much sooner than I expected. This may sound strange coming from my kind, but I was sure that I had more time."

Mew ignored the words that came out and he continued to remain passive. 'Celebi, are you still there?'

"My name is Creed!" Instantly, a clenched fist was thrown despite how far the two were from each other. The motion fired a large amount of vines that twisted together to form a giant fist. A bright glow came from Mew before a flurry of small but many fast slices turned the vines into grass falling to the ground harmlessly. Creed threw himself right after the fist with his arm turned into an impromptu pike and tried to stab the feline psychic beyond the arm. However, his stab was blocked by another sword like object if the musical clash of energies was to go by.

Creed was now locking blade arms with a Mega Gallade.

The Mega Gallade teleported away which made Creed swing at empty air. A shadow covered over the grass legendary, forcing it to look up and see a Mega Pinsir grabbing the time traveler's face and slamming into the ground at the speed of a Quick Attack. Out of the smoke, Mega Pinsir avoided roots shooting up in order to impale or snare him. Mega Pinsir turned and a light blanketed around him. In one instant, he was replaced with a Mega Houndoom with his mouth already set ablaze.

Creed avoided the massive flames and made several roots scoop patches of dirt to throw and suffocate the fires. After that was done, Creed glanced over towards the mega dark and fire type and gave a slow smile.

The false Mega Pokémon narrowed his eyes. 'Why are you smiling?'

"We knew you would come one way or another. But I was the one that insisted being the distraction this time."

What he said seemed whimsical and nonsensical, but Mew knew what he meant. The legendary's eyes snapped towards the house at the same time an explosion came into view at the back of the building.

Mew snarled while still in the form of the mega dark type. This caused Creed's smile to only grow more twisted. "Oho? Is there something special about those children you saved? There is, isn't it?~ Well not to worry, the boy will make a fine Minist—"

A burst of energy launched towards the time Pokémon, causing Creed to stop talking and avoid the blast of kinetic energy. As he looked back, Mew had taken a new form: Celebi.

However, even though another time traveler Pokémon stood in front of him, Creed's smile never changed. He started laughing, "It's far too late, False Scion. We've found the Apostle of Greed."

* * *

"I-Is that a Latios?" Lillie pointed over away from the fight between the two legendaries to see something else she certainly wasn't expecting: a third legendary Pokémon. The girl from Alola had heard tales of this Pokémon, but none of them described the Eon Pokémon to cackle like a mad man.

It kept laughing… until it suddenly flew right through a window and into Professor Oak's Lab.

Ash acted first and went in—only to step back to avoid getting hit by a thrown Aether Foundation member. Ash checked to see if the man was alright, but as he looked back up, the blue Pokémon went in deeper, passing other now unconscious members that were in the living room.

Up ahead, the sound of a psychic hum was heard from there.

They knew what room was just beyond the first one.

"Mom!" The blonde Alolan screamed in horror at the sound of another cry piercing the air. She and the others quickly ran after the psychic Pokémon, only to notice the Pokémon blasting through the wall and escaping with Lusamine.

"Guuuhhh…"

Ash paled as he saw Professor Oak lying on the corner and quickly ran to him. "Professor!"

"A-Ash?," he coughed. "W-What happened?"

"Ash! He's getting away!" Joey cried out as he pointed through the wall before he ran ahead with Lillie.

"I-We gotta go professor! Be safe, please!" the aura user cried out before he ran after the two and their Pokémon.

The Latios was much faster than the children, but thanks to Ash's instruction they could all track where the dragon type was heading. However, the three of them stopped when on their way, they saw a head stone in their path.

Joey looked around. "Where did the Latios go? And where are we?" Even though it was dark, he noticed enough of what was written on the stone to notice the last name of Ketchum.

Ash knew something wasn't right. As he tried to sense for Latios' aura, he couldn't find it. Instead, he tried to look for Lusamine's and he was surprised that he felt like he was sensing her beneath them, yet not necessarily underground.

For some reason, he was sensing her presence under his shadow.

… Shadow?

Ash reclined his fist fast and punched the ground where his shadow was. If it was a stormy night then why could he see his shadow? His suspicion was confirmed as he saw the shadow skitter away from the aura coated fist.

He wasn't expecting the shadow to actually float up and start taking a different form.

"A Darkrai?" Ash wondered out loud before the legendary dark type slammed his palms back to the ground, and caused a large void to appear beneath everyone and slowly start sucking them in.

Vayu, since she was still mid air, rushed for the dark type. However, a blast of psychic energy warded her back. Amazingly, she regained her composure mid air and went right back for the Darkrai even though the Latios was now behind the dark type. It must have come out of its hiding spot when the Darkrai came out.

The Latios blasted again. However, the flying type's speed suddenly doubled and avoided the kinetic blow. With that same speed, Vayu's talons widened before they both clamped hard on the two legendaries' surprised faces and slammed them both into the ground with the momentum.

That broke the focus of the Dark Void, freeing all those ground bound to feel their feet again as they were ejected back up the ground.

"R-Right, Vayu knows Agility." It was at this moment that Lillie found herself quite grateful to have the powerful wild Pokémon from Viridian forest. However, this was the time to fight back. They were hiding her mother somewhere, and this was the last time she would just sit in the sidelines.

She saw Vayu fly back up with Latios and Darkrai firing their attacks at her. Acting quickly, Lillie pointed towards the dark type. "Raijin, Thundershock on the Darkrai!"

Voltage danced around the Pikachu's cheeks as he fired a quick shock at the dark type. Darkrai saw the incoming attack and jinked to the right, but as he avoided that hit, he felt a major sting in his back before he was flung like a ragdoll in the sky.

Rojo had finished throwing his Focus Blast before Ash threw his scarf at him. The two shared a silent look before the red Pokémon nodded and ran after the dark type. Latios laughed manically as he tried to blast the small fighter. However, Vayu was more than willing to use a Drill Peck on the eon Pokémon's blind side.

Darkrai regained composure mid air and noticed two attacks flying his way. Dodging both the red sphere and the bolt of thunder, the nightmare legendary fired both two dark blasts at the two smaller Pokémon.

Rojo slid under the attack aimed at him while Raijin jumped over his. This made the two of them run together faster towards the dark type.

The two who usually did not get along shared a nod with each other before Rojo sped ahead and threw his arm out. Raijin jumped on it and with the added momentum of the fighting type, the Pikachu was launched up high into the air with the speed of a bullet. Darkrai gathered energy in his right palm, but the electric mouse was already gathering energy in his tail. He spun the empowered Iron Tail right as Darkrai threw his palm to make the two attacks clash. The Dark Pulse overpowered and blasted the electric type to the ground.

Suddenly, something quickly wrapped around the Darkrai's extended out arm and yanked him downward with amazing strength. His brain caught up with what was going on: it was the black scarf of the boy. The scarf was coated with red aura and at the other end of the scarf was the fighting type with both of his arms glowing white. The dark type tried to—

"ORA!"

Slam!

Rojo didn't let him have a chance as he jumped and let loose a clean, right hook into the black Pokémon's face. However, since both of his fists were coated with Bullet Punch, it meant that Rojo could finally do this…

"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!" The red type roared as he unleashed a barrage of fast empowered punches on the dark type. Rojo ended the assault with one powerful blow to the dark type's stomach before hopping one step back, gathering energy in his palm to form a Focus Blast, and slamming it right into the face of the dark legendary Pokémon.

Or at least, he should have. Despite all those punches, Darkrai seemed to have remained collected enough to move his hand to grab Rojo's from hitting him with the Focus Blast orb. Suddenly, the Darkrai's eyes flashed white.

The red Riolu shielded his eyes, but as soon as he did he suddenly found it hard to breathe and felt some kind of strange presence directly behind him. As his eyes opened, he found out he was being trapped in a choke hold… by some kind of dark version of himself? Wait… what? Was this his shadow?!

"Enough of this," the Darkrai said as he blasted Vayu off Latios and avoided another thunderbolt. "Tiono, do hurry. I don't believe Creed can hold off the scion for long."

"Righty-o!" The Latios cackled madly before turning his sight… towards the grave stone of Delia? That froze the others in confusion before it turned to horror as the dragon legendary fired a ball of energy right for the grave site.

Ash's eyes widened, by instinct he ran up between the attack and his mother's grave and created a bubble to shield himself and the grave. However, it wasn't prepared enough as the impact connected with the field and blew the young aura user away.

Something strange happened as soon as Ash's body touched the stone—like before when he had first touched it, an Ultra Portal ripped through the air and swallowed the boy in.

"Ash!" Joey and Lillie cried out before suddenly vines shot out of the ground. This time many of them not only tied up everyone once more, but encircled them into spheres, trapping them all in a thick ball of vines.

The two legendaries looked behind them to see Creed flying towards them, looking slightly injured.

"Quickly!" Creed pointed towards the portal. "The False Scion is currently distracted, we must go! Bring the apostle!"

"Yippeee-kayeah! Whooo!" The Latios' eyes glowed as Lusamine's sleeping body rose behind a tree and then he and her went through the portal. The dark type followed suit before the deranged Celebi silently glared at the portal before bringing all the captured beings with his psychic power and entering into the portal.

And then with the last of them, the Ultra Portal closed. The graveyard that was once properly cared for, was now cracked right down the middle and collapsed in half.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Again, sorry. My life has been very busy lately with work and such. I mean I'm glad to finally have a job, but it has significantly cut down my time being able to write.**

 **I'm honestly not quite proud of this chapter since it was mostly just fighting. But I am at least glad to know that this is where the story is going to start taking that somewhat unexpected turn that I planned a while back.**

 **Thank you all for the support, it means a lot along with the reviews. I wish I could spend all day just writing all my stories, but I'm am in a hurry.**


	11. Ch 11: Into the Abyss Pt 2

" _Ash!" Joey and Lillie cried out before suddenly vines shot out of the ground. This time many of them not only tied up everyone once more, but encircled them into spheres, trapping them all in a thick ball of vines._

 _The last thing Lillie saw before the vines fully enclosed her was Ash's unconscious body._

It was outstanding how it had all happened so fast… just like that night eight years ago. There was no warning, no preparations… just destruction and unwanted change.

Bill was looking over the totaled area around Professor Oak's lab. It looked like a war had gone through with all the signs of attacks and scattered debris everywhere. Yet, he recalled that last night, his eyes were not deceiving him: there were legendary Pokémon attacking them and kidnapping Miss Lusamine.

Why though? It made no sense at all.

But worst of all, young Ash and his friends were missing when the sun rose again.

"Excuse me, sir?"

Bill turned around to see two people walking up to him. One was a man in a trench coat with black hair and the other was a young woman with lavender hair.

"Uh yes? Who are you?" The scientist asked carefully.

The two people took out something from their persons, revealing a badge from Interpol. "We have a few questions to ask."

It appeared that questions would pop up more before answers would come.

* * *

[ _There was Thunder in a place without clouds._ ]

[ _There was darkness in a place full of light._ ]

[ _There was a spy among cultists, but he was forced to play his hand too soon in order to save innocent lives._ ]

[ _In this place of 'what ifs' and 'could have been', three children and their partners were dropped into the river of the abyss…_ ]

[ _However, where it led them is something else completely._ ]

* * *

+Ash+

"…Uhh, m-mom?"

+Ash+

Soon, his senses were slowly coming back. He heard the sound of thunder and in an instant, snapped upward, gasping for breath as the memories flooded back into him.

"MOM!" Ash cried out as thunder exploded in the skies above. The aura user calmed down a second before looking around him.

For some odd reason, instead of a forest, he and the others were in some kind of valley. A blue valley of all places. The large blue valley cackled with bits of electricity and he thought he saw… metal giant plants?

Besides those odd, long coiling vines, the place reminded him of a picture of the famous Chargestone cave located in Unova, known for having its own electromagnetic charge that was unique to the entire world.

However, that was not Ash's main concern. What was his concern was the fact that he sensed his friends were also nearby him. He felt relief when he found out all of them were fine, but it seemed like they were all also unconscious. What had happened when he had decided to protect his mother's gave stone?

No, those thoughts would have to be put on hold. Ash had to get these guys to safety since it looked like a storm was coming.

However, seeing as there was a lot of them. Ash decided to use their Poké Ball to return everyone back into their sphere. With that done, Ash was careful to put Lillie and Joey safely in a small indentation that should have been safe if it started to rain.

Strangely enough, even though it took a while, it didn't seem like it was going to rain. Despite the dark clouds and the booming thunder, there seemed to be no sign of water which was… eerie to the boy with heterochromia eyes.

With his friends safely secured, he tried using his aura sight—

Ash clutched his head as he suddenly shut off his aura sight. That was horribly different than he usually felt. Whenever he used that ability, there was a balance and peace of mind when entering that state and seeing the energy of the world around them.

Now? It felt like the world was suddenly at war with each other, two different essences clashed but never mixed and their contrasting energies gave this horrible friction that was disorienting to Ash who could sense the energies of the world.

Information came back into Ash's mind as he recalled something about his mother's grave. The first time he had touched it, a portal opened up that made those Kartana creatures appear. Even though he was attacked, he did touch his mother's grave again. Did that mean he and his friend s fell through another portal? It would explain where they currently were.

Though seeing what originally came from those few portals the few times he saw them open…

Ash exhaled before trying his aura sight once more. With a lot more control and patience, he scanned the area. He found himself in some valley like he saw yet… something was amiss. He sensed something off about those metal looking plants. They felt like living things in the way Pokémon and humans were, not trees.

However, his eyes snapped open when he sensed something coming their way, something with a similar energy to that of the Kartana creatures.

"Xurki…"

"Oh no," Ash searched his person and extended his staff as he turned to see a creature that looked like a giant Christmas tree of death.

It sparked to life as it seemed to focus on the aura user. It brought up several of its tendrils that looked suspiciously like plugs.

Then it attacked.

It tried to grab Ash whole in one swoop, but the young teen back flipped away before it could pull it off. Electricity started to dance from its head down to the ends of its tendrils. As it did, Ash acted fast and got out of the way of several bolts of lightning heading his way.

Then it planted most of its plug tendrils into the ground. A small spark was all Ash needed to suddenly use his staff to lift himself upward as a shock of electricity shot the ground and turned the entire area into some kind of electrical field.

As Ash landed, he looked at the ground beneath his rubber shoes. "Electric Terrain? This move increases—oh crap!"

The aura user didn't even hesitate as he infused his arm with aura to increase its throwing power and threw it like a javelin to slam the metallic staff right into the head of the killer Christmas tree. The impact made the beast stagger before it could gather an electrical blast.

As it tried to get back up, it noticed a glow of purple light—before Ash's Aura Sphere exploded on contact and threw the creature back a considerable distance back.

The teen sighed in relief before picking up his staff that had bounced off the creature after it had first made impact. Yet, before the young teen could make his way back to his friends and wonder what that thing that attacked him was, he felt an odd spike in energy.

He turned around. The good news? That killer Christmas tree was still unconscious.

The bad news? There were now a dozen more of them of varying sizes coming fast towards his direction.

"Crap." Ash looked back to his friends and made a break for them. However, as he made it to his friends, he heard something—not sensed with his aura—he heard a loud roar of an engine.

Suddenly, he moved his head up and to his utter surprise, there was some kind of half hover bike with only a front wheel and a figure dressed up in leather clothes that landed behind the group of the strange electric Pokémon and still seemed to land without stopping momentum. The figure impressively took something from their back, revealing a musket with some designs Ash had never seen before and with amazing ease, the figure shot something right for the group.

The bullet exploded in the middle of the group, causing a strange gooey substance to cover the electrical creatures and cause them to have their shiny heads flicker.

The aura user could only stare in awe as the rider blazed past the incapacitated and struggling Pokémon and stopped in front of Ash and his unconscious friends.

"Get on! That Silicone Bomb won't last long!" To the raven haired boy, it was a woman's voice, but he didn't let it really bother him and quickly helped his friends on to the side cart of said motor bike.

No sooner when they were all fastened, the woman slammed on the accelerator.

Ash watched as soon, they were making their way out of the valley and away from the creatures. However, while they were moving, the young teen noticed in the distance, there were far larger creatures in the distance. He saw that they seemed to vary in size, but he wasn't expecting creatures to be the size of a mountain. Yet unlike the others, those seemed oddly still and dormant.

"Now what the heck are three kids doing, walking across a power field like this? And why are you wearing pre-disaster clothes when it isn't safe out here? Did you come out of a vault or something?" The heterochromia boy looked towards their rescuer as she said this.

She had just said around several terms that Ash was not familiar with. However, Ash was nothing if not adaptive to being thrown in situations beyond his control. "We were attacked by some Pokémon, when I came too, we were all there."

"Yeesh, what did you do to upset them enough to get them to abandon you there?"

"That's what I was trying to figure out," Ash thought back. "Wait! They took my friend's mother! Her, but with much longer blonde hair and a little sickly, did you see any sign of her?" The aura user pointed over to Lillie.

The woman driving the bike seemed to freeze. "I'm sorry, kiddo. I didn't." It seemed like she wanted to say more than that. Ash had the feeling that she thought that woman was as good as dead, but she didn't say it out loud.

She isn't dead, otherwise why go through all the trouble of capturing her in the first place?

"… Thanks for saving us. My name is Ash. The girl is Lillie and that's Joey."

"Don't thank me kid, I was originally going to leave you before you attracted more of those Xurkitree," Ash's eyes widened when he heard that. This woman was really going to leave them? "But then I actually saw you kick the ass of one of those things without a ground type Pokémon. How'd you do that?"

The young aura guardian in training blinked. "You mean my Aura? Well, a usually rare group of people are born with special powers, you know like telepaths? But unlike them our powers manifest more in our body and souls rather than mind." Technically, anyone could be an aura user; it just usually depended on their aura reserves.

"I gotta admit that was pretty awesome what you did there." The woman responded. "It seemed like a shame to let you kick the bucket after that. Anywho, my name's Delia."

Delia? That was the same name of his mom. Putting that coincidence aside, along with how her aura does feel eerily familiar, he started noticing something. "By the way, where are we going?"

Delia pointed over in the distance where there was a wooden sign in front of a forest with blue trees? Ash used his aura to enhance his vision, to his surprise, the sign said, "Viridian Forest."

Where the heck did that portal send him and his friends?

* * *

Lillie groaned when she woke up. Her mind started to ache as she tried to remember what had transpired before she lost her—

Instantly, she sat up straight on her bed with wide eyes. "Mother!?"

Wait? Bed?

Lillie looked around her a second time, she was actually in a small room that had a circular or cylindrical shape to it rather the square and sometimes rectangular shapes she's normally seen. It was much like a bomb shelter she once read about. Her bed was actually a cot with a blanket and a pillow and there were no windows, only a door to the exit.

When she got out the door, she was surprised to see Ash talking with a rather beautiful older woman with long brown hair while both were sitting on opposite ends of the table.

"Lillie! You're awake!" The heterochromia boy waved with a smile.

"Ash? W-What's going on?" The blonde Alolan asked.

The woman sitting across from Ash stood up. "I think it's time I checked whatever supplies were left in this place." With that she up and left through another door.

"Okay," Ash rubbed his head before he went to Lillie and gently helped her to the couch nearby. "First of all, breath in and out. A lot happened, and we're going to get up to speed now."

"I'm not a kid, Ash." Lillie sharply noted.

The aura user sighed before saying something with the straightest and most serious of faces. "Are you aware that we are currently in an alternate dimension where the world has been taken over by hyper volatile alien Pokémon that have completely geo-magnetically reformed the earth to be a giant electron battery over the course of twenty plus years, causing the planet to be some super negatively charged wasteland?"

It took Lillie a full second to check if she was indeed still half dreaming when she saw how straight faced Ash said this one long sentence. "… What?"

"Are you speaking Kalosian? Because I have no idea what you just said."

The two turned to a recently awake Joey who was staring dumbfounded at what he had just heard.

"Think: the evil aliens from Super Mon and Mon League: The Animated Series." Ash spoke up.

"Aahhh! The evil Deoxys who tried to change our planet into theirs with their Super Earth Changing Doomsday Device! I see!" Joey nodded in agreement, but Lillie just stared back at Ash in confusion much like Joey a while ago.

"What? I still watch super hero movies," Ash innocently shrugged his shoulders. "But I was serious."

Lillie pushed aside the tidbit about the cheesy superhero movies and thought back to the other confusing part that came out of Ash's mouth.

"How are we here?" The Alolan asked the aura user who only stared back at her. He just kept looking back at her until it hit her. "We went through an Ultra Wormhole, didn't we?"

The young boy nodded as memories of an Ultra Wormhole opening up flooded back into Lillie's mind. "Yeah, I remember enough to know I think I saw one opening before I got knocked out." Ash spoke up before looking at his hands. "I still don't know how we escaped though."

Lillie and Joey had similar thoughts. They lost that fight, so why were they there?

"How did you know about all of this?" The blonde trainer asked the boy with two different colored eyes. "And who was that woman?"

"She's the one who saved us." Maybe he should omit the part where she originally wasn't going to. "Her name is Delia and I think… she's an alternate version of my mom."

That information surprised the other two for different reasons though.

"Wait, alternate?" Joey repeated the word in shock.

Ash was quick to translate into Joey language. "Think Super League: Crisis in Two Worlds where there are different versions of people we know."

"Ooohhh!" The ten year old understood completely.

"Your mom?" Lillie gasped but noticed how… calm Ash was."A-Are you… alright?"

Ash blinked. "Lillie, she's a different version of my mom. Not my real mom." He stated so plainly and simply.

"O-Oh? I guess that makes sense." Lillie was a bit bothered by that. Wouldn't Ash feel a bit more… no never mind. This wasn't the time for that! "What about my mom?"

A frown appeared on Ash's face. "I haven't seen or sensed her…. I don't think she was dropped off with us."

There was silence in the room as Lillie looked down in disappointment. However, it wasn't long before her eyes started become livelier and somewhat angry. "We need to find her again. I lost my mother once, I am not losing her again after getting her back."

Joey of all people seemed to put his hand on his chin and think carefully… as much as a ten year old could muster anyway, "But how? We aren't the Super League; we don't have the capability of opening up Einstein-Rosen Bridges."

Lillie looked at Ash again. It was the aura user's fault that Joey was now speaking in super hero lore.

The aura user in question felt sheepish under Lillie's judgmental gaze before coughing and trying to build on what Joey said. "He means wormholes, which also means he had the right idea." A nerdy ten year old kid, having the right idea? If Lillie wasn't in an alternate dimension, she would have probably questioned what was going on. "It was an Ultra Wormhole that got us here, so finding one should bring us back, right? Lillie, you traveled through the Ultra Dimension before, how'd you get back?"

The blonde girl put a hand on her head as she processed the question. "My friend, my mom, and I only got to and from there because of Nebby."

"Nebby?" Now it was the two boy's turn to look utterly confused.

Ash seemed to have his eyes widen. "Oh! You mean the Ultra Beast you made friends with?" The words he spoke out made him process his own sentence in his head. "Didn't you leave him behind with your friends back in Alola?"

The heiress of the Aether Foundation nodded somberly at the simple question. "If he was here, he'd more than likely get us back home, or help us find mother like he did the first time. Now I don't know what to do."

"Hey, hey! Come on, it's not that bad! Take it from a guy who's practically lived his whole life on a Pokémon infested island: all situations, no matter how bad, can always be salvaged from! We just gotta keep a positive attitude or we'll die horribly!"

…

…

"I probably should have omitted that last part?" Ash slowly asked.

"Yes." "What's omitted mean?" Lillie and Joey respectively said at the same time.

"W-Well!" Ash said, trying anything to cheer them all up. "Don't worry guys! I can't see this current setting becoming more awful than it is right now!"

Joey just stared at Ash in dumbfounded surprise. "Did you just say another version of, 'at least things, can't get any worse'—"

* * *

"Agent Flowers, report." A deep and professional voice came from the radio.

"Sir," Delia saluted as she stood in front of her motor bike. "I've entered into The Viridian Forest. I'm set to enter Johto within two days."

"Hmmm, I expected this report an hour ago. What held you up?"

Delia smiled. "Sir, what do you know about Aura?"

* * *

"Okay," Lillie exhaled to better calm herself and hugged Raijin. Currently, all Pokémon but Vayu were out before Ash could properly explain what he knew. "Let's start from the top. What do you know so far, Ash?"

The Aura user was quick to nod and explain. "I found out that this world wasn't all that different than ours. But around twenty years ago, these Xurkitree creatures flew en masse starting from Johto. Soon, everyone and every main government in the world was overrun by these creatures and when all the fighting stopped, the Xurkitree started terra-forming the earth into some kind of giant magnet field." Ash pointed above. "There's been no sign of the sun for twenty years due to the constant storm clouds and there is no rain, leaving resources scarce. It's basically like every post apocalyptic movie out there but instead of sand, its thunder storms and blue rocks."

'There better not be a cult of death racers.' Rojo folded his arms as he said this.

"Also, I probably should say this, but I never told Delia we were from another world." Ash pointed out.

Lillie and everyone else was surprised. "What? Why?"

"I didn't know how to explain it to her! Instead, she seemed to assume we were 'Vault' kids. From bits in pieces, I guessed that Vault kids meant kids born in bunkers like this one. She must think we're kids who only lived underground like this, and I pretended that I was a very sheltered one in order to learn more about where we are now."

On one hand, lying was wrong, but on the other hand, they probably shouldn't try to scare away their one source of knowledge by dropping the other world idea without any ease into it. Lillie didn't really like it, but she understood why Ash did so.

"Actually, she was about to ask me about my Aura when you came in." The heterochromia boy added into the conversation.

"Aura? She was curious about it?" Joey, now sitting on one of the seats, asked.

'Uuuhhh…' Everyone's attention looked to Raijin, the Pikachu when they noticed him sparking his cheeks.

"Raijin? What's wrong?" Lilile asked with worry.

The electrical mouse slumped. 'I-I don't feel so good…'

Suddenly, the lights in the underground bunker started to flicker.

"And _that_ doesn't look good either." Ash noted obviously before standing up. "Lillie, I think you should put him back in his Poké Ball."

The blonde girl tried to do so. However, Raijin's sparks hit his container, causing it to instantly shrink back. Lillie tried to open it back up. Unfortunately, it wasn't working anymore.

"Aah! It's getting worse!" Joey cried out as the lights started to flicker uncontrollably… like a rave.

Ash quickly used his aura sight. "Well let's see if Aura can't fix this!" He instantly noticed some kind of connection the ground had to Raijin's electricity. It seemed to be, feeding off his electrical powers.

"Sorry, Raijin, I'm going to plan B!" Ash quickly ran to the Pokémon and touched his head. Instantly, a voltage struck everyone nearby. However, the Aura user quickly focused his energy and with a small pop sound, the attack stopped and the Pikachu was out cold.

"O-Ow, is Raijin?"

Ash gasped for air as he nodded. "Don't worry. A little aura pulse on a pressure point. He's just going to be knocked out for a while."

Suddenly, a sound of steps caused everyone else to look at the door. Delia came in with her eyes wide. "What the heck was that!?" She looked around the group of kids and her eyes fell on the unconscious Pikachu.

Her mouth dropped. "You… had an _electric_ Pokémon with you!?"

Sensing the horror in her tone, Ash tried to bravely ask, "Why?"

"Those types are extinct because the Xurkitree—" Did she just say _extinct_?

However, before she could even continue, the underground bunker started to shake violently.

"Oh no! Come on, we gotta get out of here!" Delia cried out as she led the kids up some stairs and back into the blue wasteland. Everyone but Ash stared in shock at the area around them before the aura adept pushed them towards Delia's hover cycle.

"W-What's going on?!" Joey asked as he, Lillie, and Ash had to cram into the passenger seat while Delia hurriedly activated the device.

Delia put on her goggles but practically snarled at the kids. "Look, this isn't a Vault anymore! Xurkitree feed of Electric Pokémon, as in they suck them dry like batteries! The entire landscape is negatively charged which effects Electrical Pokémon's positive charge, and signals all the Xurkitree to make a beeline to whatever poor creature caught in its path! And you just unknowingly brought out an electrical Pokémon out!" She yelled as she pointed to the Pikachu in Lillie's arms.

"I-I didn't know! I'm sorry!" The emerald eyed girl admitted.

There was a distant cry coming from behind them all, as they turned to see a large swarm of Xukitree of varying sizes (The insanely giant ones were thankfully still dormant) headed towards them.

"Whatever! Just hold on!" Delia slammed on the accelerator and the bike roared to life and instantly sped off like a high speed rollercoaster.

Even though they were off to a fast start, the Xukitree swarms were right behind them. The kids screamed when one of them got to close and tried to use its tendrils to grab them. Rojo hopped on to Ash's shoulder and fired a Focus Blast on the creature to knock it back. Crashed into the ground but it's other companions avoided the falling body and continued to go after them.

However, one of the creatures fired an electrical bolt right in the ground in front of the fast moving hover cycle. Delia wasn't expecting that as the bike went through the crater, causing her to buckle forward and hit her head on the steering wheel.

"Mom!" Ash quickly panicked as he grabbed the unconscious young woman but then noticed the bike starting to swerve. The aura user wasted no time and with a whip of his scarf infused with aura, wrapped around the handle bars and made the other end reach the accelerator and breaks.

While Lillie did notice the Freudian slip coming from her travel companion, another voice caught her immediate attention.

"Ahh! They're gaining on us!" Joey cried out as he saw the swarm inching closer towards them.

"Joey, I am in the middle of being a literal back seat driver right now! Rojo, can you get them!?" Ash cried out to his best friend.

'I'm trying! But every one of those things I hit, four more replace it!' The red Pokémon cried out before throwing Focus Blasts at whatever got close to them.

Ash looked back at Delia's unconscious body and his eyes widened with realization. "Ah! Lillie, grab Delia's musket on her back! It has a bomb that will hold these guys long enough to escape!"

"W-What!? But I've never seen a real gun before let alone used one until now!" Lillie cried out.

"Well I never want to be eaten alive by alien, killer Christmas Trees! I think we know which is the lesser evil!" Ash cried out as he made them swerve to the left to avoid another electric blast.

Lillie nervously reached for Delia's musket. It was somewhat awkward since Ash was the closest to the driver but the girl from Alola got the item.

She pointed it nervously at the swarm. "W-What if I miss?!"

Joey seemed hopeful in this situation. "Don't worry, Lilie! Just use The Aura, just like Suke Lkywalker did in the original Galaxy Wars Trilogy!"

'That is _not_ how aura works!' Rojo snapped back angrily before continuing firing Focus Blasts.

However, after several more Xurkitrees were knocked down, around a dozen or so sped past their fallen members and rushed right for the group. Lillie steeled herself and pointed the musket before firing the weapon right at the creatures.

There was a bang before a large pool of silicon flew out and caught all the Xurkitree. With all of them caught in it, Ash pushed the accelerator and they all sped off.

"Whoo! Good job, Lillie!" Joey cried out and Ash basically agreed with him.

"T-That," Lillie gasped. "That was a rush, I admit. … Do not make me do it again."

However, despite how dead serious she said that last part, she ended up breaking to laughter which everyone else joined in to.

'Ash!? Hit the breaks!' Rojo yelled as he pointed ahead.

"Huh, what? Why—oh." The boy quickly asked before looking in the direction he was supposed to be watching.

The reason for this was because there was a cliff right in front of them. Ash hit the Breaks as he did so, but unfortunately it was not fast enough as everyone fell off the area.

"Rojo, forcefield! The best one you could muster!" As soon as Ash said this, he and his Pokémon covered the entire hover cycle into a sphere of red and purple energy. When the sphere crashed into the ground, the sphere ended up bouncing and moving forward, much to the dismay of nearly everyone inside.

Eventually, the large bouncing did cease, and Ash and Rojo dropped the force field. No sooner than they did, Joey got up and barfed on to a nearby blue tree.

'Uuhhh, not fair, I just had the world stop spinning when I woke up…' The red Riolu dizzily stated.

"That… can we all agree not to do that again?" Lillie managed to ask before she left the hover cycle as well.

Ash slowly got out and helped ease Delia into the passenger seat after everyone else got out. "At least we have a story to tell people when we get back home huh?" Ash tried to be optimistic but as he turned towards Lillie, his eyes widened with surprise.

"Ash?" The emerald eyed girl looked at her companion as he slowly pointed to something behind her.

The girl from Alola hesitantly did so. When she did, she could not believe her eyes.

Joey, now cleaning his mouth, went up to his two older friends. "Okay, so what do we do now? And where are we?"

However, to the youngster's confusion, Ash and Lilie never looked at him. Instead, Ash just started to say out loud. "When I was with Delia earlier, I found out that we were in a different version of the Viridian Forest. If I remember the map in our old world still stands, and considering how fast we were going? I think we ran right into the range of the Indigo Plateau or Mt. Silver."

"That's Mt. Silver. The Indigo Plateau wasn't that big." Lillie causally answered while still staring in awe at what was before her.

Joey noticed Rojo walking up to his trainer and looked up. 'Holy crap.'

Finally, the ten year old boy looked towards the Mt. Silver of this dimension….

Yet, one major difference in this world than that of the group's normal world was that their Mt. Silver did not look like a giant decorated Christmas ornament with Xurkitree of all shapes and sizes planted as far as the eye could see all around it.

Another factor was a rather ominous, giant golden arch that seemed to be constructed above the mountain itself with strange symbols they had never seen before.

However, all these factors seemed to be ignored when the group all looked at the very top of the mountain. Even though they were far away, they all noticed what was on the very top of Mt. Silver:

A giant Ultra Wormhole.

* * *

 **{Author Notes.}**

 **Sorry I'm late. At least this story isn't dead!  
**

 **Anywho, I hope you enjoyed this Christmas themed chapter here in December. (You know? Lots of Killer Christmas Trees and Xurkitree looks a lot like?)**

 **Thank you all for supporting this fic. Pokémon stories are my favorite to write for some reason. They're just so fun to me to write!**

 **I do hope you enjoy your holidays everyone. I hope this chapter finds you well!**

* * *

[Non-Cannon Extra: Holiday Hijinks]

Joey was carefully planting mistletoe on a specific doorway with Rattata, Rojo, and Raijin all watching him inside Professor Oak's main lobby.

'Joey, what are you doing?' Joey's partner asked with confusion and a growing sense of unease.

"Okay, so mistletoes are seen as good luck charms for people to kiss under it! I want Lillie to give me one!"

'Why?' All three Pokémon asked at the same time.

"Why? Because she's hot! And since Sensei isn't dating her, I might have a chance!"

'Joey, while I applaud you for reaching for the stars, you might not even reach half way.' Raijin, the Pikachu noted duly which the other two nodded in agreement.

"What come on!? Haven't you guys heard of a Christmas Miracle?"

Rattata spoke up with earnestly. 'Joey, even a Christmas Miracle can't bridge the gap on how out of your league she is.'

"Hey! I'm sure this will work! This is one of the archways that Lillie has to pass through to get to the Christmas Tree!"

Just then, Ash came in with a tray of freshly made cookies. "Hey guys! The first batch of cookies is done. Professor Oak told me it was alright to give it to you guys before he gave to the rest to the other Pokémon and people."

Joey instantly forgot about his plan as he and the others all reached for the plate and started munching down on them.

"Hey, save some for the others guys. There's more to come." Ash chuckled before realizing he hadn't seen Lillie. Perhaps she was still in her room?

The aura user went to check but as he reached the archway, he saw Lillie truning around to face him.

"Ahh, Lillie! I was about to call you that the first batch of cookies were done. You should probably get one before Joey and the others finish it all."

The Alolan girl smiled. "Sure I… huh?" She trailed off when she noticed something above her.

That sound made Joey stop and instantly remember what he was doing before the warm chocolate chip cookies distracted him. He and the other Pokémon turned to see Lillie and Ash looking under the mistletoe.

Both young teens blushed and looked away from each other. "O-Oh! I didn't um see that." Ash began as he rubbed the back of his head.

"I-I didn't see it either!" Lillie reached for her arm and started rubbing it awkwardly because… it needed to be? "Y-You know, I once read that there were over 1300 mistletoe species worldwide?" The girl started to blather out loud.

"Oh really?"

"Y-Yeah! And you see, the berries, or the white version of them, are actually poisonous to humans, but not to Pokémon!"

A new amount of laughter echoed in the room, causing everyone to look over to Professor Oak.

"I find learning new things as interesting as the next person," Professor Oak smiled. "But would you two please move? I think you're blocking the way for others."

The two realized that it wasn't just him, Lusamine, Bill, Daisy, and some Aether Foundation workers were now watching them like a rare, majestic Pokémon.

Ash of all people sighed and removed his cap. "Well I've always been a sucker for Christmas Traditions."

To everyone's surprise, Ash leaned in and kissed Lillie on the cheek before putting his cap back on and briskly walking away.

Lillie was in the process of becoming a tomato with how her face seemed so red.

Lusamine laughed. "My is it hot in here or is it just Lillie?" She said with a teasing smile on her face.

"Mother!"

"What? I have to admit that I've had many gentleman callers back in my day, it's good to see you have 'it' too!"

What was she even referring to!? "Mother!?" Lillie practically fumed, but it was about as threatening as a baby Wooper swimming happily in a kiddie pool.

This caused everyone to laugh as Lillie left the area trying to ignore the laughs and the coos of how adorable that was.

[Meanwhile, in Alola…]

"Hey, Gladion~ Do you wanna…" Luna paused for a second as she noticed something off with the blond boy. "Gladion, why are you doing your battle pose when you're not doing a trainer battle?"

"I…" Gladion's hand trembled with a force he could not explain. Then he threw his hand out dramatically and put it near his face as he usually did before a battle, "I have a need to beat up someone!"

"YEAH!"

Luna looked over to her brother, Sol, and Hau of all people copying Gladion's pose in what she hoped was in an ironic manner.

She sighed and put a hand on her head. "I miss Lillie."

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **And thus ends a small Christmas Special. Gotta Love Fanfiction for all those obscure pairings… (Well some of them anyway, the really obscure ones in this side of Fanfiction are… not to be threaded upon.)**

 **Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!**


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